Singapore Zoo

Interesting facts

In early 1974 a hippopotamus named Congo escaped into the Upper Seletar Reservoir and stayed out in the water for 47 days.

Inuka, born at the zoo on 26 December 1990, was the first polar bear ever bred in the tropics and lived to the age of 27.

Even before the gates opened, the zoo had its first escape: a black panther named Twiggy slipped out in March 1973.

The zoo opened on 27 June 1973 with about 270 animals from more than 72 species, looked after by a staff of 130.

Steve Irwin adopted Singapore Zoo as a sister zoo to his Australia Zoo and opened its Australian Outback exhibit in 2006.

In 1987 a pair of golden snub-nosed monkeys on loan from China drew more than half a million visitors, and giant pandas followed in 1990.

After Ah Meng's death the role of the zoo's orangutan ambassador passed in 2016 to her granddaughter Ishta.

The Fragile Forest biodome encloses about 20,000 cubic metres of rainforest and houses 11 butterfly species, eight of them native to Singapore.

Its Elephants of Asia habitat keeps a herd of five female Asian elephants that come from Sri Lanka, India and Sumatra.

In 2022 the zoo sent 13 Rote Island snake-necked turtles back to Indonesia as part of a repatriation effort.

Why it is worth it

Singapore Zoo opened in 1973 on a wooded peninsula reaching into the Upper Seletar Reservoir, in the green heart of the island, and it set out from the start to do without the look of cages. Its enclosures are "open": animals are separated from visitors by moats, water channels, vegetation and discreetly placed glass, so that the view is of an animal in a landscape rather than behind bars. Across its 28 hectares the tropical forest of the reservoir's edge is part of the design, and the walk between exhibits feels more like a stroll through a humid garden than a tour of a collection.

The zoo was the project of Ong Swee Law, then chairman of Singapore's Public Utilities Board, who saw a use for the forested land around the reservoir he was responsible for. It now keeps around 2,500 animals of some 300 species, a significant share of them threatened in the wild. It is best known for its orangutans: it holds one of the largest colonies of these apes in human care, and the orangutan Ah Meng, who died in 2008, became a national figure through the zoo's breakfast programme, at which visitors ate at a table beside the apes.

Among the distinctive exhibits is the Fragile Forest, a walk-through rainforest biodome opened in 1998 where ring-tailed lemurs, two-toed sloths, butterflies and Malayan flying foxes move freely around visitors. In 2006 the zoo opened a free-ranging orangutan habitat, where the apes move through the treetops above the paths with no enclosure between them and the public. The zoo is now one of five parks that make up the Mandai Wildlife Reserve, together with the Night Safari, River Wonders, Bird Paradise and Rainforest Wild, all operated by the Mandai Wildlife Group.

Getting there

The zoo is at 80 Mandai Lake Road in the Mandai area in the north of Singapore, about 3 km from the Fajar housing estate. Changi Airport (SIN) is Singapore's main international gateway; the nearest airfield by straight line is the small Seletar Airport (XSP), about 8.5 km away. Public buses 138 and 927 serve the zoo, and the Mandai Khatib Shuttle runs from Khatib MRT station.

From the encyclopaedia

The Singapore Zoo, formerly known as the Singapore Zoological Gardens or Mandai Zoo, is a 28 hectares zoo located on the margins of Upper Seletar Reservoir within Singapore's heavily forested central catchment area. It is operated by the Mandai Wildlife Group, which also manages the neighbouring Night Safari, River Wonders, Bird Paradise as well as Rainforest Wild.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Singapore Zoo

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia