There is such a different feel walking about the zoo at night than I have experienced at other places around the world, for a start you’re more aware of your surroundings; your eyes are more keen, adjusting to the low-light so that you can spot the smaller inmates as they feed on hanging fruits. And secondly your skin and sense of touch heightens. Something happens in your head that magnifies everything you feel, be it the breeze, the touch of a leaf, a mosquito or even just the touch of your friends who are pushing to see the animals better than you.
For the entire time the four of us brushed our arms and legs, thinking we were being feasted upon by the pesky mites. It’s a good job that at the entrance gates, amongst the merchandise and foods, there is a small stash of anti-mosquito products. We selected the Tiger Balm patches, impregnated blue spots about three centimetres in diameter, because Lady is pregnant and these patches simply stick to your clothes giving you an aura of protection without the direct skin contact.
Once you walk through the gates and get past the tribal dance group with flaming batons (which is mighty impressive, if not smokey) then you do lose most of the other people and you feel like you’re on your own to some extent, with the animals as your entertainers. Normally zoos are chock-full but the Night Safari seems to be relatively empty.
Admittedly it is not pitch-black, it couldn't be. However the lighting is low and strategically placed for maximum exposure to the animals. Lights are placed near the walkways, where keepers will have just recently placed food-stuffs to entice the wildlife out to say hello.
The variety of life is wide, from otters and bears to start, through various tree-dwellers with big eyes for seeing at night, then the carnivores; lions, tigers, hyenas, wolves, leopards. The zoo is segregated by clearly sign-posted trails that weave through the jungle and also two tram paths that take you through the open areas where animals such as deer and tapir do come right up to the tram.
In addition there is a 40 minute show that runs through the night which is very funny and very entertaining. It showcases some of the zoo's favourite and more loveable animals in a large amphitheatre but be warned, the queues are very long and you need to get into one early to avoid disappointment. But do go, it's very entertaining.
The only down side we found, okay, so it’s not so much a down side as an annoyance, the only annoyance was the shocking commentary and driving on the trams that ferry you around two sections of the park where animals roam free. The various guides had learned the same patter (we overheard another tram from the elevated lion viewing platform) and all pronounced the words as if they’d been to the Disney Club School of Elocution and taken the same minor degree as taught by Dick van Dycke during his time in Mary Poppins.
We had to listen to the regular lead-in to every new section,
“ovah ‘ere on tha roight ‘and soide of da tram”
and endless dramatic pauses when none were really warranted;
“a capybara weighing…seventy-five kilo……grams.”
We know where you’re going, when you say ‘kilo’ so you don’t need to string out the ‘grams’. It’s the same when we learn that a rhino can charge at speeds of “twenty-five kilometers an……hour”. It would be an impressive fact if Singapore Night Safari rhino could charge at 25 kilometres a second, but we all know that’s rubbish, so just tell us alright, don’t lay the drama on.
And the driving, oh my gosh, the painful part of the visit, the driving!
I didn’t realise the Singapore F1 Grand Prix course ran through the zoo. That's amazing isn't it? The drivers were taking part in free practice! Every time we pull up to an exciting new animal enclosure, we would slow but not stop, continuing to move forward while the commentary kept rolling, even before Minnie Mouse had finished telling us about the Malaysian Tapir. The most frustrating was to run past two elephant enclosures, the tigers, bearded pigs and numerous other animals who were up and about late at night, whilst we stopped for an elongated moment at the capibaras. FLAMING CAPYBARAS??? They’re giant rodents! I don’t care that you’re driving the last tram of the night, but you DON’T speed through the zones on our tickets.
So, some recommendations for other animal-lovers visiting the zoo; wear comfy shoes, it can be a warm walk. Take some mosquito repellant and reapply. Take some spare water, the price of refreshments jumps when you reach the far side of the park and you’re desperate. Agree not to use the flash on your camera. Agree and abide by it. Make sure you jump in a return taxi before midnight or the price sky-rockets.
Shovel
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