Singapore's Giant Pandas
Thursday, 03 February 2011 08:46
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On the way back from China I stopped over in Singapore and visited the three properties run by Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS): Singapore Zoo, Night Safari and Jurong Bird Park. 
As part of the visit I met with the curators and head vet who are involved in making sure everything goes well with getting two Giant Panda's, Hu Bao and Wu Jie, next year who will live at their new property River Safari.
The River Safari will be a 12 ha park adjacent to the Zoo and Night Safari, on land bordering the reservoir and will house one of the world's largest collections of freshwater aquatic animals, with more than 300 plant species, 500 animal species and over 5,000 individual animal specimens.
Hu Bao and Wu Jie will be the first pair of pandas to be living in the tropics – there is a pair at Chiang Mai in Thailand but they are further north of the equat
or in a sub-tropical zone. A purpose built facility (1500 sq m) is being constructed as part of the new River Safari development and will see the pandas having a climate controlled facility that will be maintained around 18-22C, with 50-60% humidity, with some access to the outdoors although the conditions will be slightly different to what they are used to now!
Wendy
Manager of Conservation Programs, Zoos SA
Photo 2: Curator Ang Cheng with 1:50 scale model of new panda exhibit for Singapore's River Safari
