New Year's Gathering / Outing

New Year's Day and my family had a steamboat lunch. Afterwhich, we went to the zoo and Night Safari, so as to bring our guest around. It had been so long since I last went to the zoo, ever since the last semester of university where my second ex and I went there to spend the day before my school started again.

The zoo had many changes since then. Instead of just an enclosure for animals on display, there is education, awareness and the message of recycling, all in the theme of a tropical rainforest, in order to keep the natural habitat of the animals intact and ensure their survival.

We entered the zoo and saw a few elephant statues on display. They look so life-like that they remind me of the elephant farm I went to in Chiang Mai (Thailand). After entering, there was a display on the care and conservation of polar bears, after which we went by the parrots and python display, before entering the Treetops Trail.

Elephant statues at the entrance of the zoo

The big python on display

Parakeets on display

The lone parakeet

The Treetops Trail is a section of the zoo where there are man-made swamps with trees full of siamangs, rodents and crocodiles in the swamps.

The little rodent in Treetops Trail

One of the crocodiles basking in the swamp of Treetops Trail

After coming out of the Treetops Trail, we went past the otters, where they were having afternoon naps.

The sleeping otters

How can we miss the orang utans, the icons of our zoo? Just a pity we did not manage to see the mascot, Ah Meng, the grand matriarch of the orang utans.

Orang utan swinging from a tree

We went around the zoo and saw the other animals on display.

Goral (a type of deer or goat)

Pink flamingos

After that, we went by to watch the polar bear feeding and comentary. There are only two polar bears left, a mother and a son. The mother is already almost thirty years old, and the son is sixteen, the only polar bear to be born in the Tropics (or so it was claimed). Unfortunately, the climate here is not that suitable for polar bears, even in their air-conditioned enclosure. Thus, once the mother bear passes on, the son will then be sent to Europe, where the temperate climate is more suitable for its well-being and growth.

The 2 polar bears - Mother and Son

The son

The mother bear

Guanaco (eating grass)

Maned wolf sleeping (reminds me of my dog)

Single hump camel

Nilghai (another type of goat)

Sunbear

Baby sunbear fighting

The black and white tapir (camouflaged very well)

The rare white tiger

Babirusa (wild boar)

Next, into the Australian Outback, where animals native to Ozland are found.

Emu

Kangaroos and Joeys

Close-up of a kangaroo

This looks like a turkey to me

Next to the Australian Outback, there is a section on an Ethiopian rainforest, where the Hamadryas Baboons and animals native to the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia are found.

Entrance of the enclosure to the baboons

Some kind of mountain goat (found in the baboon enclosure)

Skull of a baboon (really similar to humans)

A little mole (of sorts) in the baboon enclosure

A family of baboons

A mother baboon and her young

Red-assed monkey?

Out of Ethiopia and into tropical forest land!

Red-beaked cranes

A little mongoose

Off to see the Elephants of Asia!

An elephant skull (actual size)

An elephant tusk (actual size)

Baby elephants

See the elephant reaching for its food!

An elephant ride (although we did not go due to the long queue)

Once out of the elephant enclosures, we went to the "Antarctica", where cold water animals live.

A white pelican

A sealion

A manatee in the water

Jackass Penguins swimming away

Out of the cold water, into primate kingdom!

Peacock strutting around

Close-up of a Chimpanzee

A little mousedeer passing by

Next stop - into Cat Country!

A sleeping Jaguar

A puma

The King of the jungle, with his wife (or is it mistress?)

Out where the cats live and into the grasslands of Wild Africa!

A young giraffe

A Nyala

A hyena lurking in the background

Our striped friend eating hay

An Eland

The white Rhino (some say it looks diseased)

This goat seems to be staying with the rhinos

After this, it was out of the zoo. Since we were still early for the Night Safari, we went for dinner on the zoo premises, before making our way down the street into the Night Safari. Unfortunately, the nocturnal animals are very sensitive to light, thus I was not allowed any flash phtography, and since without any flash photography only darkness could be taken, I did not manage to take many pictures at the Night Safari.

The entrance of the Night Safari (with its infamous logo)

A setting in the Night Safari in the shape of a little tribal house

Since our feet were sore from walking around the zoo during the daytime, we decided to take a tram around the Night Safari. The tram ride was pretty comprehensive, and covered almost every part of the enclosure, so we managed to see most of the animals, except the Cheetah, which was found in the enclosure on the walking trail. But since we did not have much time left before the animal show, we just took the tram ride around and queued for the show.

Part of the amphitheatre where the animal show is held

All in all, it had been a fulfiling and fun day! What a way to start the year! Hopefully the rest of the year will go by just as fulfiling and fun!