Night Safari in Singapore

The major event of my day was the night-time safari at Singapore zoo. This is Singapore’s most famous and award-winning attraction. Some visitors joke it is Singapore’s only tourist attraction. I disagree – I have found Singapore to be highly entertaining so far.
The entrance to the safari is designed like something out of the American TV show ‘Survivor.’ It was all tiki torches, bamboo huts and wooden totems, with dramatic background and spot lighting. It wasn’t at all natural or authentic but it was full of atmosphere and set an exciting mood.
To get a good look at all the animals you can walk around various tracks and take a guided tram. I found the tram to be the more enjoyable because the tour conductors give a feast of trivia My Encyclopatrick alter-ego recorded it all with delight.
In the future you can expect me to quote savant-like from my new pot of useless information. For example, did you know that:
The pink flamingo is one of the few species of bird to give milk to its young
The jackal was revered by the ancient Egyptians as the god of death, Anubis. This is because the jackal is a natural scavenger usually found hanging around dead bodies. Jackals are even known to dig up buried human remains in their search for food.
Only the male cicada makes the distinctive ringing sound. This was discovered by a Greek philosopher who came up with the following poem. ‘How happy the male cicada’s life: For each one has a voiceless wife.’ Bigoted but witty, don’t you think?
The rhino’s skin may look tough but it’s actually extremely sensitive. Like pigs, rhinos have no sweat glands in their epidermis. So they wallow in mud to maintain their skin’s condition and kill parasites.
This last fact reminded me of a lot of my friends. Not the parasite bit, but that, of the people I know, the ones who appear the roughest and toughest are in fact the most sensitive. While the quiet and gentle ones are the steeliest, most determined, sometimes the harshest.
I saw so many amazing animals up close. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone who comes to Singapore. I even saw some otters. Regular readers of this blog will know how much I love me some otters. The ones I saw weren’t holding hands but I swear one couple was spooning. Such affectionate little critters.
Needless to say, it was amazing to see wild animals like lions and tigers and elephants. Or weird and unusual animals like the four-month-old striped tapir or the giant anteater.
But the highlight for me was walking through the mangroves and getting up close and personal with the bats and flying foxes. I had seen these animals before in Australia and found them fascinating. But here I got to go eye to eye with a flying fox hanging upside down less than a metre away from me. It was tingly.