Popular Posts

Spending great time at Asia's first and only river-themed wildlife park at River Wonders, Singapore

River wonders Singapore is a zoo about river life from rivers all around the world such as the Ganges river, Yangtze river and many more. This Asia's first and only river-themed wildlife park has 7,500 amazing land and aquatic animals representing 240 species - including fishes, reptiles, mammals and birds too.







Amazon Flooded Forest
When you enter the first exhibit, you will pass through an indoor hallway with information boards talking about the rivers and the life within it. Upon exiting the hallway, you can see some planted tanks containing fishes that are well maintained and looks like an actual ecosystem. Even when it is raining or the sun is very hot, you do not need to worry much as most of the areas are covered.










Ganges River
The Ganges river shows river animals from the Ganges river such as the gharial and many other species of fishes. This section is not 100% covered from the sun, so it might be a bit hot. Inside the gharial's enclosure, there are some turtles and the gharial does not seem to want to attack them - living in harmony. 






Mary River







After passing through the planted tanks, you will come across a tank with a few fishes. The main one there is the Tiger fish. There is an information board there describing it as the "piranhas of Africa" . The reason this fish shows it's teeth is because it has no lips. Like a shark, it has replacement teeth and it will push it out when it has broken or missing teeth.






Mekong River






After the tiger fish tank, we came across a very big tank showing many species of catfish, 2 giant freshwater stingray. Most of the fishes here are very big in size, especially the Mekong catfish. It's eyes are slightly lower than it's mouth, which makes  it look a bit up-side down. 









Yangtze River





Giant Panda Forest
The giant panda forest is an indoor exhibit that houses giant pandas and red pandas. Both animals come from the same type of habitat and Their enclosure must be air-conditioned to replicate their homeland's temperature. 



There are separate enclosures for the red panda, which has branches and trees to climb on. There is even a wooden platform for them to sleep on. 

Here comes the lovable red panda

and another red panda

For the giant pandas, the male and the female pandas are kept separately. The child panda is kept with the mother while the father is in another enclosure. 

Here comes the dad..

Eat...

And eat...

And eat....

And sleep...and this sounds like man! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

While poor mum has to keep up with her active ones. Non stop!

Lele playing with mum Panda.
We stop there for a sight. Loving them in their made natural habitat.




Panda diet


Near the panda enclosure, there are horseshoe crab and mudskipper exhibit. Mudskippers are fish that can go on land and breathe. It also can swim underwater. Some of the horseshoe crabs are upside down after climbing a wall but it knows how to flip back up with it's tail.



Here are souvenir shop right after Giant panda forest featuring lots of panda themed souvenirs like panda plush toys, panda hair bands, keychains, fridge magnets and many more. Many good panda-themed goods here to find.







If you are up for snacks or lunch there is a Panda Mama Kitchen store for a break. Panda mama sells mains - noodles, nuggets and sandwiches set. There was a long queue so we just got ourselves 2 red bean panda bun from a kiosk just right outside the shop as its cute for photos and skip the long queue. :p

This kiosk sells the same bun that of inside panda mama and had some drinks and snacks for easy purchase.

Meal survival tips: get a heavy breakfast before trip. You may not want to queue for main meal.





Isn't this cute?? 🥰🥰🥰


Now moving on to another half of the River Wonders!


Loving the sight.


Our best found : The Amazon River Quest

The amazon river quest is a ride that you can go on. It is a boat in a small man-made stream. At the start, you have to board it like theme park rides. A big elevator will then bring your boat to the start of the adventure. During the ride, you are surrounded by forests and nature. You can see some animal enclosures for monkeys, flamingos, anteaters, capybaras and many more. There is also a cheetah enclosure that is not exposed like the others. Some animals got curious and observe your boat. We did twice as there is no queue and we love the water splash!





Tips: Go on a weekday to avoid crowds. We saw a notice to expect 30 mins queue for monkey forest on a peak period. And Amazon river quest has long queue path which to cater for long weekends and public holidays. 













Halfway through the zoo, we went to watch the Once Upon a River show that is inclusive with the entrance ticket but it has a specific timing and you need to book your slot through a QR code. We went in for the 2.30pm show. It is about showing animals living near rivers and seeing them performing tricks. At the start of the show, the host will select some adult volunteers and a child volunteer before they start. The first animal shown is a parrot that can speak. after performing tricks and walking back, the parrot throws three plastic bottles on the floor. It is part of the performance and it is quite funny. 





The next animal is a sea otter. It will dive into the small pool to catch a fake crab and put it into a basket. Then, the water bottles will be thrown into the pool and the sea otter is going to pick it up and throw it into a recycle bin to educate people about recycling. After the otter's wonderful performance, a hornbill is brought out - it will jump on the 3 adult volunteer's arms like a tree branch.


And for the one child volunteer? He will be trying to touch a snake and hold it. The child described the snake as smooth and dry. Pelicans then walked into the stage. Fishes is being thrown into the pool for the pelicans to catch. and surprisingly, pelicans only weigh 11 kilograms. Up next is the capybara, even the size is about the same with the pelican, it is as heavy as 70 kilograms. They can also swim in the water.






The show was great. Upon exiting, we went to the squirrel monkey forest where you can enter their enclosure to see the monkeys. There are many guidelines that you must follow as the monkeys may steal your items, so do walk with care and do not touch the railings which is the walkway for the monkeys.




After the monkey enclosure, we went to an indoor section which shows animals that live in the flooded amazon forest such as the river otter. The river otter enclosure features a tunnel tank that you can walk into but we did not see them as they are asleep at this time. 



There is also an electric eel tank. This eel is very big in size and has an ability to produce electricity. Beside the tank, there is a chart that shows what the eel is doing by reading the voltage of the eel. Tropical fish also can be found at that exhibit.









Near the electric eel's tank, there is a piranha tank that has a few piranhas inside. They don't really swim that much but will get aggressive when feeding. 







And for one of the main attractions here is the manatee enclosure. It is a very big tank containing many fish species such as the arapaima, red-tailed catfish and many more. There are some man-made tree trunks that makes it look like a flooded forest. by the time we came, the manatees are eating at the other side where we can't see them. Soon after some divers brought food to the front so we can see the manatees. They are very big and round. and swim slowly. There are a few areas to view them, the main one, the side one and the top view.











Our take from this visit: Overall, this place is very interesting to learn about animals. It is also very fun to look around the place and observe the animal's behavior. The place is very clean and well maintained, which makes the experience very pleasant. 


Where Is This?

River Wonders Singapore
80 Mandai Lake Rd, Singapore 729826


Just follow the walkway if you stop at the taxi stand. It will lead you to 3 places that are nearby each other - Singapore zoo, night safari and river wonders.



Ticket rates are as below link:




SG residents will get a 20% off from this rate




Here is our grab transport fee from Chinatown for your reference if you choose to stay at Chinatown in Singapore:


Alternative, you can catch a fiddle bus no. 138 to and fro Ang Mo Kio MRT station if you have spare time to save cost on transport. We did it on our way back.

These are the attraction map of river wonders:
 

No comments:

Post a Comment