Singapore’s new River Safari tours the world’s great river ecosystems — from the Amazon and the Congo to the Yangtze. There’s also the Night Safari and Singapore Zoo. Liu Xiaolin meets a manatee.

Venturing into the Flooded Amazon Forest in Singapore’s River Safari is like plunging into a mysterious underwater world when the Amazon River submerges forests during the six-month monsoon season.

From a sunken acrylic tunnel, I spot giant river otter Takuto swimming around leisurely above me, while his pregnant mate Chelsea rests in a cave on the land. The two are said to be the model couple in the zoo, always together and nuzzling.

Moving to a jungle walking trail, I pass large tanks containing predators such as powerful electric eels and razor-teethed, red-bellied piranha. The trail leads to my favorite part — a huge pool containing a herd of 11 magnificent manatees — giant, gentle and surprisingly graceful sea cows — frolicking among the sunken tree trunks. They are contained in a 2,000 cubic meter tank, along with arapaima, one of the world’s largest freshwater fish. It’s a breathtaking display of the underwater ecosystem in the heart of the Amazon River.

At first I was disappointed to actually see the manatees, one of the world’s oldest and largely herbivorous aquatic mammals. I could hardly imagine that these ungainly animals with a short neck and rough skin were famously mistaken for mermaids by ancient sailors. Then I saw them twirl, spin and glide in the water, as gracefully as synchronized swimmers, and I realized that from a distance they might look like mermaids, though they can grow as long as four meters and weigh more than a ton.

During feeding time, the manatees swiftly surfaced and clustered around their keepers who stood on tree trunks in the jungle pool, handing out food.

“That’s my dream job,” my friend murmured, gazing at the manatee feeder.

“That would be a bit difficult. We have too many applicants waiting in line every year,” joked Joey Phua, an official of Wildlife Reserves Singapore. The company manages four major zoos and wildlife parks in the country: the Singapore Zoo, Jurong Bird Park, Night Safari and the newly opened River Safari.

Seven of the manatees were transported from the Singapore Zoo to the River Safari. It took two days for 20 vets and zookeepers to move them — the largest weighing a ton — to their new home.

“That was a hell of a scene. They prepared oxygen tanks for the manatees during the transfer and had to use a crane,” Phua recalled.

Located on a corner of the Upper Seletar Reservoir between the Singapore Zoo and the renowned Night Safari, the River Safari is the latest attraction of Wildlife Reserves Singapore. It’s the first and only river-themed wildlife park in Asia.

Launched in April, the park simulates eight of the world’s great crucial river ecosystems, including the Amazon, the Nile, the Mississippi, the Yangtze, Mekong, Congo, Murray (Australia) and Ganges rivers.

More than 5,000 animals of 300 species, both land and water dwellers, inhabit the park. More than 40 species are endangered.

Most of the animals come from exchange programs with wildlife parks and zoos around the world. Others, like the arapaimas, are donated by animal lovers who didn’t realize the small fish could reach more than two meters in length. “It’s impossible to keep them at home, so they turned to us for help,” Phua explained.

“River Safari offers an immersive experience of closely watching these wonderful animals in river habitats. Some are disappearing rather fast ... The River Safari hopes to underline the importance of these freshwater ecosystems to encourage protection and conservation,” said Claire Chiang, chairperson with Wildlife Reserves Singapore.

Another highlight of the park is the Giant Panda Forest, a temperature-controlled bamboo forest enclosure inhabited by two giant pandas, six-year-old Kai Kai (male) and five-year-old Jia Jia (female). The two just celebrated their birthdays and their one-year anniversary at the zoo. More than 600,000 panda lovers have seen them in the past 10 months.

“Our biggest concern is for them to breed and have a cub. Jia Jia is still young and a bit shy, while Kai Kai still has weak eyesight and hind legs, so we will wait and see,” said Chiang.

The park is fully prepared for artificial insemination and staff were cheered by the birth in July of a panda cub in Taiwan, through artificial insemination.

Panda souvenirs are available. Mama Panda Kitchen offers its signature Panda Pau, a panda-shaped steam bun with red bean paste filling.

Visitors are asked to keep their voices down at the panda forest, since the pandas are disturbed by noise.

Flash photography is not allowed, but natural-light photos are permitted.

The River Safari is in soft opening and tickets are discounted. The Amazon River Quest, a boat ride through flooded South American rain forests, is expected to open in mid-2014.

Night Safari

For many visitors to Singapore, seeing animals close up is a thrill. As a tropical city-state, Singapore doesn’t have many native flora and fauna.

“We made a great effort to bring animals here from around the world,” said Lee Meng Tat, chief executive officer of Wildlife Reserves Singapore.

The spectacular Night Safari is the world’s first nocturnal safari and a thrilling adventure for adults and older children (small children sleeps early at night).

A 40-minute open-tram ride winds through 35-hectares of tropical forests where visitors can see animals from a close but safe distance — dangerous animals are safely behind unobtrusive barriers.

The ride explores seven geographical zones, including equatorial Africa, the Himalayan foothills and Asian Riverine Forest.

We saw a flock of pink flamingoes posed like ballet dancers in the moonlight in the Indian Subcontinent zone, while a male swamp deer watched out for his herd. In the Burmese Hillside zone, a banteng (cattle) sheltered a calf as she caught sight of us.

Asiatic gir lions and striped hyenas looked at us hopefully from their hills.

“They thought we were coming to feed them because we are riding in a feeder’s car,” the guide explained. “Sorry guys, we let you down.”

Apart from the tram ride, a stroll along four trails, each a 20-minute walk, offers an awe-inspiring experience. The Jaguar Trail is among the most popular because visitors can get fairly close to big cats — safely within enclosures — as well as night-flying fruit bats and giant flying squirrels. Along the Wallaby Trail, visitors see Australian animals including wallabies and gliding possums.

Special experiences include a five-course dinner on the tram ride, and elephant feeding. Both require reservations.

Singapore Zoo

Compared with the Night Safari, the daytime zoo ensures more interaction with the animals and better conditions for photography. It can easily take a day to tour the open-plan zoo park that contains more than 2,800 animals.

Start the trip with breakfast at Ah Meng Restaurant where the orangutans come down from the trees through a drawbridge to join you. Animal shows are children’s favorite, as well as elephant and pony rides. Visitors asked not to feed animals on their own. Instead, they can purchase food on-site for token feeding times in designated areas.

Some animal welfare advocates are anti-zoo and anti animal performance, contending the animals are deprived of their wild environment for the sake of profits. From our laymen’s standpoint, the animals seemed well-tended and relaxed.

“We designed shows fully based on the nature of the animals and their living habits,” said Lee, CEO of Wildlife Reserves Singapore. “Besides, from a businessman’s perspective, a zoo has to do well in order to do good.”

“We also try to minized the human contact and keep them as natural as we can,” said Phua.

The star orang-utan Ah Meng, which died in 2008 because of old age, used to sit down and have tea with people for breakfast at Ah Meng Restaurant. But today, all the orangutans are guided to their own table and have breakfast by themselves.

“The difference is Ah Meng was raised up by human and then donated to us. For those orangutans born in the zoo, we want their own mothers to raise them so as to stay wild,” Phua added.

In recent years, the zoo has bred a number of animals, including the orangutan, proboscis monkey, lion-tailed macaque and Malayan tapir. This year, it focuses on protection of 18 species, such as the Asian elephant, Cambodian turtle and Bali myna.

Established four decades ago, the Singapore Zoo has shifted from pure entertainment to education and “edu-taining.” Behind the Scenes tours let children enter the incubation center of the Fragile Forest enclosure to see how butterflies, scorpions and other insects are bred.

They can also touch a snake’s slough, the shed skin, and a snake’s jaw with fangs. If they want the real thing, they can hold a harmless snake in the backstage tour of the Reptile Garden.

A visit to the Wildlife Healthcare and Research Center offers a peek into treatment rooms where veterinarians check, treat and perform surgery on animals from all three parks, River Safari, Night Safari and Singapore Zoo.

Jurong Bird Park

The audience cheered and applauded at Jurong Bird Park when a chatty Amazon parrot showed off his language skills by mimicking human sounds. Said to be the world’s largest avian park, Jurong boasts a kaleidoscopic collection of birds from 380 species.

The park also contains the only avian hospital in Asia Pacific region and a breeding and research center focusing on bird conservation and rewilding.

Jurong Bird Park is the first reported to have successfully bred the endangered twelve-wired bird of paradise in captivity. The “wires” refer to 12 long black filaments that sweep forward over the bird’s hindquarters.

This January, it successfully incubated wild three hornbill eggs. Hornbills are endangered since their rain forest habitats are being destroyed.

IF YOU GO

• River Safari

Opening hours: 9am-6pm

Tel: (65) 6269-3411

Admission: S$25 (US$20) for adults,

S$16 for children 3-12 during soft

opening;

Website: riversafari.com.sg

• Night Safari

Opening hours: 7:30pm-12pm

Admission: S$35 for adults, S$23 for

children 3-12

Website: nightsafari.com.sg

• Singapore Zoo

Opening hours: 8:30am-6pm

Admission: S$22 for adults, S$14 for

children 3-12

Website: zoo.com.sg

Tel: (65) 6269-3411

Address: 80 Mandai Lake Rd

• Jurong Bird Park

Opening hours: 8:30am-6pm

Admission: S$20 for adults, S$13 for

children 3-12

Tel: (65) 6265-0022

Address: 2 Jurong Hill

Website: birdpark.com.sg