African night safaris are dangerous activities. Many wild animals are at their most active at this time; feeding, hunting and killing! It is inadvisable to get in their way. In fact, it's inadvisable to be anywhere nearer than the distance a good telephoto lens would provide -and then some. Lions and jaguars and hyenas do a lot of hunting at night.
The Singapore Night Safari next to the zoo is very well-attended (1.1 million visitors each year) and is therefore a typical Singaporean well-run business. Lots if parking for cars and buses, lots of gift shops, lots of eateries and shows. Oh yeah, lots of animals too -lots!
The brilliant part of this night zoo is that as we are driven round the dark Singaporean jungle on extended multiple-car trams, the animals are all right there in front of us in their enclosures and not hidden in undergrowth or hiding behind trees. Many of them are even facing the road where the hot and smelly humans are mindlessly grinning at the creatures -perhaps waiting for someone with a peaked hat and a bucket of greens/pignuts/steak/bananas. That they are 'content' to be seen by humans is most likely down to repeated exposure. That they remained in view all evening may have something to do with feeding times. That they stayed put was largely due to the surreptitious deep ditches and fencing.
Any zoo is a problem: should animals be kept in confinement -even the endangered ones? That people should be exposed to wildlife goes without question, as does the fact that they should be charged money for the privilege of doing so (as long as this goes towards their upkeep and survival of their environment), but should the prerequisite be capture and captivity. I love to see a furry Binturong as much as the next man, and it's most likely that the only chance I'll get to see these nocturnal creatures, some of the most beautiful fluffy, prehensile tailed mammals on the planet, is at something like a night zoo. But does that make it right? Well, I now know what they look like and will fork out the dosh next time someone asks me to support them, so maybe that animal's cause is not lost on me. But I'm still not sure that makes zoos into noble causes themselves.
Anyway, the rest of Singapore at night is fun, bordering on the spectacular. It is a safe city full of bars, eateries, shops, attractions and pleasant walkways along the clean waterfronts and streets. Because it was pointless taking pictures of animals in the dark at a nighttime safari park, I enclose some of the rest of Singapore and of our very good friends John & Gail Zobrist at places where the lights were on!
