RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 1 - Part 8 - The Classic Safari Adventure Tour, starring Nur
After Creatures of the Night finished we headed out to our private buggy for our tour with Nur. Now we didn't realise that we would be the only ones on the private buddy, the website hadn't mentioned it being a completely private tour. Nur advised us that that is mainly because sometimes they do need to take more than one group through on the private buggy's but for the most part they try and make the tour completely private.
And with that information we headed off into the safari. The first stop (and yes unlike the main tram we actually got to stop at the exhibits while Nur explained a little about the animals we were seeing) was the Lions. In keeping with the amazing streak of luck we were having with the big cats at Singapore Zoo we again saw one of the girls pacing and very active. Nur explained that the zoo uses different incentives to get the animals to come into the forefront of the exhibit and to be active during the night hours. In this instance the zoo keepers had put a fake dead buffalo in the front of the enclosure and this lioness was extremely curious about it!
Eventually she lay down with her fellow lions but it was great to watch her wander for a while
We pulled up next to the Asiatic Black Bear enclosure next, but didn't stop long as we did a U-turn to stop at the Leopard Trails walk that would take up the majority of our Night Safari Tour. We did get this one picture of the bear, who looked so fluffy I wanted to (irrationally I know) cuddle him!
The start of the leopard trail was beautiful, covered in animal outlines lit up with fairy lights. It was at this point that I explained to Nur that I am like a moth when it comes to pretty lights, I can't stay away, so we had to stop and take pictures of all the prettiness. Once again, he thought that was funny (I guess I am weird in a funny way)
One of the first animals we came across was the Bintarong, or as I was now calling them, my tree cats. We watched them for quite a while, just sitting in their trees and it was here Nur explained a lot of things about Civets that I cannot remember (because I didn't write them down) except that their prehensile tails can kill a man, and that they can hang from a tree like a monkey with them. Later on we saw more civets (I don't have pictures of them) but land dwelling ones. The land based civets actually fight their predators and have scents they use to do this, while the tree ones don't need to because they live in trees (I'm pretty sure Nur explained it much more succinctly than that)! Apparently the land dwelling civets are pretty strong and in a fight against a Python will take down the Python about 50% of the time. Not bad for a cute fuzzy looking bear cat type animal.
We also ran into the Leopard cat, the DNA ancestor of the Bengal domestic cats. My brother in law has one so we had to take picture for him.
I believe we also saw some porcupines (scary creatures up close), badgers and otters along the way, but I have no photos of them. We also entered the enclosure of an elusive flying squirrel, who we only saw briefly at the outer edge of his enclosure before we decided to move on.
Speaking of flying flapping things, Nur had asked me earlier in the walk if I had an aversion to bats, and I told him that I did, so when we arrived at the next enclosure he offered for me to skip it. For some reason I decided to be brave and we entered the enclosure of a number of large fruit bats. I have no problem with bats when they are just sitting there, hanging from their branches (they look like tiny little dogs with pointy cat ears, but upside down). However as soon as the bats started flapping around my head I was a little jumpy, and these bats were HUGE, just check out the comparison of the bats to a regular sized banana!
This owl was very tricksy and used all 270 degrees of head tilt to try and get away from our camera. Luckily we got one picture of him! It's worth mentioning at this point that the enclosures were so dark we had to have our Tamron lens (non-zoom lens) on so we could use it's lower apertures to get decent shots in the half dark. As a result we couldn't get pictures of every enclosure, some were just too dark or the animals too far away!
I was trying to remember the name of the below creature so I looked up the Night Safari Leopard Trail animals and discovered it's just literally known as a Golden cat, no wonder the name didn't stick!
Last up were the leopards. We don't have any pictures here because of how dark it was. The Leopard was the exception to the run of great luck we had with big cats at the zoo, it was pacing but out of site and only when we left the viewing window did it show itself. We saw it a little from another viewing window but not very well. It was at this point that Nur proceeded to explain to me the different between leopards, panthers and jaguars, all of which are basically the same thing to me. Apparently it's not to do with colour (I always thought of Panthers and Jaguars as black and Leopards as gold and spotted but apparently they can be black as well). I think he told me that leopards and panthers are tree dwellers, where as Jaguars dwell on land, and the a jaguar will have a squarer strong jaw (they can apparently bite off a crocodiles head if need be). This made me realise that Bagheera from the Jungle Book must have been a panther, because he could climb trees, I always thought he was a jaguar (a quick google of the Jungle Book confirms he was indeed a panther!). Sorry for the random side bar but I figured as its Disney related it would be allowed and accepted here
. What the difference between a leopard and a panther is I don't know though, so I have a better grasp on this concept but not a completely well educated one (at least Nur helped me learn something that evening!).
After the leopards we headed back out to the main tram route and were back on the tram. We headed past some more African animals and then to the Hippo enclosure, where we stopped because a keeper was out to feed the hippo.
The keeper then proceeded to shovel hay towards the Hippo who opened his mouth to expose the scariest looking teeth I've ever seen. I can imagine now why they are the most dangerous animal in Africa when provoked. The scariest part is that the hippo enclosure had no fence, bars, glass anything, it was just about 2m lower than the main tram road! Check out this guys mouth (I'll call this picture "Give me noms")
We headed onto the White Lion enclosure after this, however he was sleeping - and didn't look overly white to me. Apparently they are whiter than your average lion but not white in the way a white tiger is white. This particular lion apparently came from Kruger, and was quite anxious when he first arrived, pacing and only sleeping 6 hours a day instead of the 16 he should be! So seeing him sleeping was a good thing, according to Nur.
Also in the African section was where I learnt fascinating fact of the day number two (the first was that civets existed!). I discovered Hyena's aren't dogs, but more closely related to the cat family! I always thought they were dogs! Perhaps that's why Scar had so much control over them in the Lion King (hello my distant hyena cousins, do my bidding etc etc).
After this it was just a lot of deer and antelope. A LOT of deer and antelope, until we reached the Elephants. Apparently the only difference between deer and antelope, Nur informed us, is that one lives in the forest (deer) and one lives on the plains (antelope). Other than that they are basically the same - and somewhat the same to look at as I'm sure many of you who have been on Kiliminjaro Safari's at Animal Kingdom know.
The Elephants were also a bit far away, but beautiful to watch as we zoomed past in our buggy (it was getting late at this point). The last two things we saw were a little more interesting. The first was Nur's favourite creature in the whole night safari, an unimpressive looking Asian bison (basically a fancy word for cattle). They were not much to look at (and as a result I have no photos) but Nur informed us that they could run at 40km/h for up to 45 seconds which makes them the greatest of all animals in terms of speed, and endurance. Leopards, for example, can reach speeds of around 120 km/h but only for about 8 seconds. Nur says its incredible that these bison can keep that pace for as long as they do without overwhelming their systems, which is why they are his favourite.
Our last encounter was with another big cat, a tiger (Sumatran this time) and he, like most of the big cats we saw that day, was not simply sleeping. Unlike the other big cats of the day though he didn't look peaceful, or curious, he looked ready to pounce a kill (much like my cats at home whenever the mood strikes them!). Nur advised the keeper was likely around ready to feed him. I'm not sure if the tiger wanted to pounce on the prey, or the keeper, but with that face I'd probably stay well clear of him if I was on food duty!
And with that our journey at Night Safari ended. We loved every minute of it, and were especially grateful to our guide Nur for his knowledge of all the animals we saw, and his humour and wit, which kept us entertained all evening. We asked if we could get a picture with him before leaving, and he kindly obliged - this is us just outside the exit to the Night Safari.
While the Classic Safari Adventure was about double the price of the regular Night Safari entrance costs I would TOTALLY recommend it. At $120 a person it wasn't too expensive and the value provided by our wonderful guide Nur was probably worth a lot more than that. We would have enjoyed the regular safari I'm sure but not got anywhere as much out of it as we did with such a knowledgeable and fun guide. Night Safari is a highlight of the Singapore Zoo either way though, as I'm not sure I know of anywhere else in the world with a zoo open during night hours, so it's definitely a unique experience you have to do when in Singapore.
By the time we were ready to leave it was about 10:30pm so we decided to grab a cab back to the hotel rather than try and use public transport so late at night. It was a much easier process than two trains and a bus, and wasn't too expensive either.
And that ended our first day of the holiday. We were already having a blast and loving Singapore, and were excited for the next day when we would head out to our first theme park of the trip, Universal Studios Singapore.
Continued in Next Post...
After Creatures of the Night finished we headed out to our private buggy for our tour with Nur. Now we didn't realise that we would be the only ones on the private buddy, the website hadn't mentioned it being a completely private tour. Nur advised us that that is mainly because sometimes they do need to take more than one group through on the private buggy's but for the most part they try and make the tour completely private.
And with that information we headed off into the safari. The first stop (and yes unlike the main tram we actually got to stop at the exhibits while Nur explained a little about the animals we were seeing) was the Lions. In keeping with the amazing streak of luck we were having with the big cats at Singapore Zoo we again saw one of the girls pacing and very active. Nur explained that the zoo uses different incentives to get the animals to come into the forefront of the exhibit and to be active during the night hours. In this instance the zoo keepers had put a fake dead buffalo in the front of the enclosure and this lioness was extremely curious about it!
Eventually she lay down with her fellow lions but it was great to watch her wander for a while
We pulled up next to the Asiatic Black Bear enclosure next, but didn't stop long as we did a U-turn to stop at the Leopard Trails walk that would take up the majority of our Night Safari Tour. We did get this one picture of the bear, who looked so fluffy I wanted to (irrationally I know) cuddle him!
The start of the leopard trail was beautiful, covered in animal outlines lit up with fairy lights. It was at this point that I explained to Nur that I am like a moth when it comes to pretty lights, I can't stay away, so we had to stop and take pictures of all the prettiness. Once again, he thought that was funny (I guess I am weird in a funny way)
One of the first animals we came across was the Bintarong, or as I was now calling them, my tree cats. We watched them for quite a while, just sitting in their trees and it was here Nur explained a lot of things about Civets that I cannot remember (because I didn't write them down) except that their prehensile tails can kill a man, and that they can hang from a tree like a monkey with them. Later on we saw more civets (I don't have pictures of them) but land dwelling ones. The land based civets actually fight their predators and have scents they use to do this, while the tree ones don't need to because they live in trees (I'm pretty sure Nur explained it much more succinctly than that)! Apparently the land dwelling civets are pretty strong and in a fight against a Python will take down the Python about 50% of the time. Not bad for a cute fuzzy looking bear cat type animal.
We also ran into the Leopard cat, the DNA ancestor of the Bengal domestic cats. My brother in law has one so we had to take picture for him.
I believe we also saw some porcupines (scary creatures up close), badgers and otters along the way, but I have no photos of them. We also entered the enclosure of an elusive flying squirrel, who we only saw briefly at the outer edge of his enclosure before we decided to move on.
Speaking of flying flapping things, Nur had asked me earlier in the walk if I had an aversion to bats, and I told him that I did, so when we arrived at the next enclosure he offered for me to skip it. For some reason I decided to be brave and we entered the enclosure of a number of large fruit bats. I have no problem with bats when they are just sitting there, hanging from their branches (they look like tiny little dogs with pointy cat ears, but upside down). However as soon as the bats started flapping around my head I was a little jumpy, and these bats were HUGE, just check out the comparison of the bats to a regular sized banana!
This owl was very tricksy and used all 270 degrees of head tilt to try and get away from our camera. Luckily we got one picture of him! It's worth mentioning at this point that the enclosures were so dark we had to have our Tamron lens (non-zoom lens) on so we could use it's lower apertures to get decent shots in the half dark. As a result we couldn't get pictures of every enclosure, some were just too dark or the animals too far away!
I was trying to remember the name of the below creature so I looked up the Night Safari Leopard Trail animals and discovered it's just literally known as a Golden cat, no wonder the name didn't stick!
Last up were the leopards. We don't have any pictures here because of how dark it was. The Leopard was the exception to the run of great luck we had with big cats at the zoo, it was pacing but out of site and only when we left the viewing window did it show itself. We saw it a little from another viewing window but not very well. It was at this point that Nur proceeded to explain to me the different between leopards, panthers and jaguars, all of which are basically the same thing to me. Apparently it's not to do with colour (I always thought of Panthers and Jaguars as black and Leopards as gold and spotted but apparently they can be black as well). I think he told me that leopards and panthers are tree dwellers, where as Jaguars dwell on land, and the a jaguar will have a squarer strong jaw (they can apparently bite off a crocodiles head if need be). This made me realise that Bagheera from the Jungle Book must have been a panther, because he could climb trees, I always thought he was a jaguar (a quick google of the Jungle Book confirms he was indeed a panther!). Sorry for the random side bar but I figured as its Disney related it would be allowed and accepted here
. What the difference between a leopard and a panther is I don't know though, so I have a better grasp on this concept but not a completely well educated one (at least Nur helped me learn something that evening!).After the leopards we headed back out to the main tram route and were back on the tram. We headed past some more African animals and then to the Hippo enclosure, where we stopped because a keeper was out to feed the hippo.
The keeper then proceeded to shovel hay towards the Hippo who opened his mouth to expose the scariest looking teeth I've ever seen. I can imagine now why they are the most dangerous animal in Africa when provoked. The scariest part is that the hippo enclosure had no fence, bars, glass anything, it was just about 2m lower than the main tram road! Check out this guys mouth (I'll call this picture "Give me noms")
We headed onto the White Lion enclosure after this, however he was sleeping - and didn't look overly white to me. Apparently they are whiter than your average lion but not white in the way a white tiger is white. This particular lion apparently came from Kruger, and was quite anxious when he first arrived, pacing and only sleeping 6 hours a day instead of the 16 he should be! So seeing him sleeping was a good thing, according to Nur.
Also in the African section was where I learnt fascinating fact of the day number two (the first was that civets existed!). I discovered Hyena's aren't dogs, but more closely related to the cat family! I always thought they were dogs! Perhaps that's why Scar had so much control over them in the Lion King (hello my distant hyena cousins, do my bidding etc etc).
After this it was just a lot of deer and antelope. A LOT of deer and antelope, until we reached the Elephants. Apparently the only difference between deer and antelope, Nur informed us, is that one lives in the forest (deer) and one lives on the plains (antelope). Other than that they are basically the same - and somewhat the same to look at as I'm sure many of you who have been on Kiliminjaro Safari's at Animal Kingdom know.
The Elephants were also a bit far away, but beautiful to watch as we zoomed past in our buggy (it was getting late at this point). The last two things we saw were a little more interesting. The first was Nur's favourite creature in the whole night safari, an unimpressive looking Asian bison (basically a fancy word for cattle). They were not much to look at (and as a result I have no photos) but Nur informed us that they could run at 40km/h for up to 45 seconds which makes them the greatest of all animals in terms of speed, and endurance. Leopards, for example, can reach speeds of around 120 km/h but only for about 8 seconds. Nur says its incredible that these bison can keep that pace for as long as they do without overwhelming their systems, which is why they are his favourite.
Our last encounter was with another big cat, a tiger (Sumatran this time) and he, like most of the big cats we saw that day, was not simply sleeping. Unlike the other big cats of the day though he didn't look peaceful, or curious, he looked ready to pounce a kill (much like my cats at home whenever the mood strikes them!). Nur advised the keeper was likely around ready to feed him. I'm not sure if the tiger wanted to pounce on the prey, or the keeper, but with that face I'd probably stay well clear of him if I was on food duty!
And with that our journey at Night Safari ended. We loved every minute of it, and were especially grateful to our guide Nur for his knowledge of all the animals we saw, and his humour and wit, which kept us entertained all evening. We asked if we could get a picture with him before leaving, and he kindly obliged - this is us just outside the exit to the Night Safari.
While the Classic Safari Adventure was about double the price of the regular Night Safari entrance costs I would TOTALLY recommend it. At $120 a person it wasn't too expensive and the value provided by our wonderful guide Nur was probably worth a lot more than that. We would have enjoyed the regular safari I'm sure but not got anywhere as much out of it as we did with such a knowledgeable and fun guide. Night Safari is a highlight of the Singapore Zoo either way though, as I'm not sure I know of anywhere else in the world with a zoo open during night hours, so it's definitely a unique experience you have to do when in Singapore.
By the time we were ready to leave it was about 10:30pm so we decided to grab a cab back to the hotel rather than try and use public transport so late at night. It was a much easier process than two trains and a bus, and wasn't too expensive either.
And that ended our first day of the holiday. We were already having a blast and loving Singapore, and were excited for the next day when we would head out to our first theme park of the trip, Universal Studios Singapore.
Continued in Next Post...
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. We also have a Canon 700D with a Sigma 1.8mm - 35mm lens (this is not a full frame camera though, but a crop sensor one). I think the thing about taking photos like this is no matter what camera you buy you have to learn how to use it. For night photography we use full manual mode so we can set up the shot 100% ourselves 
