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📷: Photo station in Night Safari. [Posted by David McNamara on Pinterest.]
#TIL Singapore had created the world’s first nocturnal wildlife park when it opened the Night Safari on 26 May 1994!
The park was received so positively that 760,000 visitors came in the first year, more than four times the 180,000 visitors that the zoo management had anticipated!
The Night Safari captured everyone’s imagination with its novel concept: designed to be experienced only at night, this groundbreaking idea allowed nocturnal tropical mammals — the ones we don’t get to meet in most zoos — to be showcased to the public for the first time.
Like our Singapore Zoo, the Night Safari also makes use of an “open concept” to recreate a natural environment, with natural barriers such as nettings, plants, and water moats to contain the animals. This creates the illusion — especially at night when lighting is low— that the visitors are in a real safari. The lack of perceived barriers also makes the animals feel at home, especially those not native to Singapore.
Beyond being an attractive destination, the Night Safari is a proud contributor to wildlife conservation. Today, it is home is home to over 900 animals from approximately 100 species, of which 41 percent are considered endangered or threatened. It is also actively involved in global breeding programmes, and has successfully bred endangered specieis such as the Malayan tapir, Malayan tiger, the clouded leopard, and the Asian elephant. In 2006, the Night Safari also unveiled the Wildlife Healthcare and Research Centre, which would further enable the park to care for, treat, and breed its nocturnal inhabitants!
Along with the wildlife, the Night Safari showcases our creative Singaporean spirit and a can-do attitude. As then-PM Goh Chok Tong said at the official opening of the park in May 1994:
“The Night Safari is an excellent example of what keeps Singapore going: the willingness to think big, the boldness to seize opportunity, the readiness of Government to back up a good idea.”
To date, the Night Safari has achieved global renown and attention, and also won numerous awards. Now as part of the larger Mandai Wildlife Reserve alongside the Singapore Zoo, River Wonders, and Birds Paradise, it continues to exemplify Singapore’s careful balance between conservation, nature and urban progress, to do things better for all.
#onthisday #Singapore #nightsafari #nightsafarisingapore #mandaiwildlifereserve #zoo #GCT