Ever since the bearded bohemian Bernard Harrison left the zoo as its Head Honcho, I think its been pretty much a downhill slide.
The first thing that hit K and me as we stepped into the entrance foyer to buy our tickets this afternoon was, God this looks like Sentosa! Yes, Commercialism has taken over. The whole place is now a cross between some Balinese beach resort and a Serengeti tribal village. It can't decide. Heck the service staff have also swopped their utility polo-Ts for really fugly-looking ethnic-cut shirts and sarong-chequered flappy pants.
Money has been spent, no doubt, to spruce the place up and on creature comforts. But we think the moolah has gone to the 'creatures' we call
Homo sapiens, rather than the animals. The enclosures look the same size, but the add-ons like gift shops, fancy bamboo-hut rest stops and expensive landscaped 'Heliconia Gardens' have all suddenly mushroomed.
You know we used to be the best in Asia. And one of the very first (if not the first) zoo to have such an open concept. Minimal cages and bars but strategically placed moats and discreet wire-fencing to keep the wild ones at bay. I suppose we are still very much an Open Zoo but with all these changes, K and me feel that the 'back-to-the-wild-side' experience that should accompany every zoo visit has been severely diluted.
Anyway, it was not all doom and gloom lah. Apart from the gloomy weather though. Still brought back some memories of when I was a student volunteer and made to pick up Rhino dung every morning. Big fat pieces the size of a baby's head! But at least I got to toss bloody chickens to the Lions =))
Before we even stepped into the zoo proper, we had to do a BJ =O
Did you know? We certainly didn't. My fav is Chunky Monkey and K's Strawberry Cheesecake. Cherry Garcia nice meh? =))
If you can't read, just look at the heads to identify which animal you want to gawk at next =)) If you can't tell the difference between a Hippo and a Rhino then good luck to you.
When the Zoo says its a Zebra Crossing, they mean it! Wouldn't see this in the CBD you won't.
Ok some animal shots next. If they're a little blur and out of focus forgive me. That's what you get for using a long tele-photo and not having a tripod plus steady hands.PPNN Tiger (private joke!) =)) But I'm certainly not going to test out if he's a sissy for being so nice and fair.
This Siamang was quite vain and actually played to the gallery.
A Hamadryas Baboon looking pensive at the waterfall, perhaps contemplating the sad irony of fate and a lifetime of bondage =))
The usual monkey pastime of tick-picking. These are macaques, I tick..err.. tink.
This gibbon couldn't decide if he wanted to go up or down. So the camera had to keep going from left to right, right to left.
Gambir, the 17 year-old Asian Elephant doing a little wave after yet another 'cute' performance.
A Jackass Penguin taken from behind his frosty glass enclosure which explains the weird colors and Antarctic feel =))
Billy the Kid.
I love Meerkats. Unfortunately when we were there, the resident vet was trying to catch a couple for vaccination. So they were a little jumpy. The photos of them all ram-rod straight in usual Meerkat 'peering watchman' fashion were all blur because they moved too much =/
Cool afternoon so Big Daddy was out, not snoozing in his sub-zero playpen.
The Singapore Armed Forces would be proud of this one. Confirm minimal camouflaging required with such a groovy paint-job =))
Was waiting to report someone to the rangers if I ever saw him/her sharing sandwiches and peanuts =))
At the end of the day, we had an OK time lah. You guys better visit the place fast before they start a theme ride called Jurrassic Park right next to the Reptile enclosure =))