The River Safari is Asia's first and only river-themed wildlife park. Located just between the Singapore Zoo and the Night Safari, the park comprises mainly of freshwater attractions and in my opinion the main attraction there is the two Giant Pandas, Kai Kai and Jia Jia.
I've always wanted to visit the River Safari to see the Giant Pandas but didn't have the time and missed the opportunity to do so when Qing asked me to join her the other time. So I was over the moon when my FSC passed me a pair of tickets. Thanks a lot, E! With the expiry date being tomorrow, it sort of force me to fix a date and time to this outings. Bf was not happy. He don't like this type of outings but I still want him to go so he has no choice. Even used up his $50 Safra voucher to redeem two more tickets for my parents.
In exchange, I paid for his mum's admission ticket for her to join us and have fun too. The usual price for an adult tickets should be S$35 but because the Amazon River Quest boat ride is still not yet available until later this year so I got it at a discounted price of S$25.
The set of tickets that when put together forms a nice picture.
The two giant pandas, Kai Kai and Jia Jia was presented to Singapore by the China government to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Sino-Singapore relations in 2010. They will be in Singapore for 10 years under a joint collaboration between Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) and China Wildlife Conservation Association.
The river is calling... so let the journey begins. The 7 great rivers of the World that we are going to explore is the Mississippi River, Mekong River, Yangtze River, Ganges River, River Nile, Congo River and Murray River. I think the 8th river is the Amazon River but it was not open yet.
The Mississippi River. The following are the animals that can be found here.
Alligator Snapping Turtle, with a massive jaws so powerful they can easily snap off one's finger. I definitely don't like this turtle to be close to me.
These small ones look more harmless.
Alligator Gar, with its alligator-like snout lined with razor-sharp teeth, not to be mess with too. Its flesh is edible but the eggs are toxic to humans.
Beaver, nature's greatest architect always busy building something.
Making funny faces here.
The Congo River is called "the heart of darkness" by author Joseph Conrad. Known for its vast wilderness and a violet history of slavery, tribal warfare and illegal ivory trade.
Here, be dazzled by the schools of rainbow-coloured fishes such as Congo tetra, kribensis and jewel cichlid.
River Nile is the longest river on Earth.
Here, expect to see the African Arowana, Bichir, Tigerfish and the Giraffe Catfish. The different species of fish can be found at different depths of the river. Some of them, like the Bichir prefer to hide among rocks, some like the giraffe catfish are usually on the river floor, the African Arowana prefers to swim closer to the surface of the water.
Ancient Egyptians called the River Nile Ar or Aur (black) because of the fertile black soil left behind from floods.
The Ganges River is the River of faith in India. Every year, millions bathe in the Ganges River as they believe that the water is holy and can cleanse their souls of sins.
The Indian Gharial has a bump at the tip of a male's snout. It is believed to amplify buzzing sounds made during courtship.
Murray River holds a lot of rare fishes too.
See the native fishes consisting of the Murray Cod, River blackfish, Murray River Rainbowfish and Australian Lungfish.
Now we've come to the Mekong River.
This is a 3 metres high exhibit for those giant river creatures.
Giant Freshwater Stingray. They use their special sensory cells around the mouth and nose to detect electrical field generated by prey.
Behind me is a tank full of fishes like the Mekong Giant Catfish, Giant Siamese Carp and the Giant Freshwater Stingray. The ever changing backdrop. So nice!
Yangtze River is also known as Chang Jiang or "The Long River". It is the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the World.
Say "Hi' to the Yangtze Alligator. During winter, they will dig a burrow and hibernates inside for up to 7 months. What a life, in a year of 12 months, 7 months spent hibernating. only need to come out and look for food during the other 5 months.
Looking at you! O_O
Nice backdrop here too with the rocks and water.
Chinese Sturgeon can live till more than 100 years old! They are covered with bony plates called scutes instead of scales.
After exploring the 7 rivers, we have come to the end of the Rivers of the World trail. Now is the most exciting moment as we stepped into the Giant Panda Forest!
Before we see the Giant Pandas, we saw the Golden Pheasant.
And the Red Panda. The red panda eats a lot of bamboos too. It seems like something is bothering him. I took a instavideo of it pacing up and down and up and down again. Watch it here.
Kai Kai and Jia Jia. So adorable!
Panda Kai Kai! Why today the bears seems to have a lot on their mind ah? While the red panda is pacing up and down, Kai Kai is like sitting there, resting on his left arm and like thinking. Don't know what's on their mind. Haha.
Incidentally, there was a contest going on in search of 10 Panda Party Planners. 5 from MyPaper and 5 from Capitaland. I submitted this as one of my tweet and I won! Woohoo~ Thanks so much, CapitaLand. Read their post here and look out for my next post as I will be blogging more on what I do as a Panda Party Planner.
I love panda.
Bear paw VS Giant panda paw
Panda Jia Jia was very shy and we can only see her through the CCTV. She just like to stay in her den and refuse to come out. Not sure if this is a good sign or not. We waited a while but still no sign of her coming out so we moved on.
We've come to the Mama Panda Kitchen. Took a break here and had some food.
This has got to be the most popular photo and gotten the most number of likes on both my Facebook and Instagram account. Cute panda buns and cappuccino! The top layer of the panda eyes and eyebrows are actually chocolate-flavoured flour strips and the fillings inside is red bean. It's S$2.90 per bun and S$11.50 for four. Save S$0.10 only but if you ask me if it's worth buying or not, I would say YES! Take photo also happy right?
And a plate of chilled chicken in spicy bean paste cause I'm hungry. Cost S$6.90. Need to eat some meat.
Have reached the Wild Amazonia. The Amazon River is the second longest river after River Nile. The attractions here include the Amazon River Quest (unopened), Amazon Flooded Forest, Squirrel Monkey Forest and River Talk.
River Talk is held every 11am and 4pm at the Amazon River Square. We have the opportunity to take photo with the pelican duo.
Toco Toucan, it eats fruits and helps to disperse seeds in the forest.
Jaguarundi, also called the "otter cat" is a good climber and swimmer.
Very active monkey.
Amazon Flooded Forest
Electric Eel
Did a collage cause I took so many photos here.
This interesting photo marks the end of our River Safari outing. Some people say they only took less than an hour to finish touring the whole River Safari, but we took a total of 3 hours from the time we bought our tickets to the time we exit. Maybe cause we stopped by to take a lot of photos. I really love to see the animals.
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