River Wonders

River wonder is an aquatic park in Singapore, located at northwest corner of upper Seletar reservoir. It is clustered with Singapore Zoo and Night Safari. I went there with a few co workers Friday last week.

entrance to River Wonders

Despite being Asia's only river themed wild life park, it is felt just like any other aquarium. The park started with printed exhibits only about river Nile, Yangtze river and Amazon flooded forests, no river or river animals are associated with the exhibits. The exhibits are dull.  Later there is a boat ride along "amazon" forest. The boat floats fast, and I felt hurried through the forest, and did not feel the serene nature, or have time to appreciate animals along the river bank.

There are quite a few river animals at the park, such as Indian Gharial from Indian's river Ganges, Capybara (Amazon forest), giant freshwater stingrays, and giant freshwater salamander. 

The Indian Gharial refused a fish placed near its mouth by a zoo keeper! 

A more interesting observation was that saw giant freshwater stingrays' big camouflaged eyes! 

The the giant salamander is so well camouflaged with the log, I dd not see it until it moved. 

Indian Gharial (crocodile)

Capybara

Giant freshwater sting rays

giraffe catfish

Giant Salamander

There are also some water fowls. Black faced spoonbills reminded me of the pink spoonbills at Lettuce Lake in Tampa, Pennsylvania. The toucan and violet curacao are new species for me.  

Black faced spoonbills

violet turaco

toucan

It seems that there are many land animals at the aquatic park: wild boar, lion tailed macaque, red panda and giant panada. I wondered why the giant panda is part of the river wonder. According to river wonders website, the giant pandas live in Yangtze river basin. There are two giant pandas in separate enclosures. One was asleep and did not come out at all, another was walking in circles in bamboos. Right before I was about to leave the panda place, the circling panda walked into the open and I got a good picture of it.

wild boar

lion tailed macaque

red panda

giant panda

A most interesting sighting was the playful acts of two river otters - they chased each other, nibbled at each other and a bit tug of war.

This is a decent park, and I enjoyed it. 

Note

The clustered parks  - Singapore zoo, night safari, river wonders and a recent addition Bird paradise, form the Mandai Wildlife reserve. They claim to preserve wildlife and nature. But right at the place marked Mandai Wildlife reserve, there is a huge destruction of natural habitat ongoing,  trees were down, huge concretes are being erected. A resort is being built.  What a hypocrite!