Our 262nd entry in this blog is our first time trip to Singapore’s River Wonders in Mandai, North Region. I am quite confused as to what I am supposed to tag this place, is it a zoo or an aquarium. hehe. But since it has also land animals, like the cute panda, then I’ll be tagging this as a zoo 🙂

River Wonders, formerly known as River Safari, is a river-themed zoo and aquarium located in Mandai, Singapore, it forms a part of the Mandai Wildlife Reserve, consisting of the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari and Bird Paradise and the upcoming Rainforest Wild Park.

It is built over 12 hectares and nestled between its two counterparts, the Singapore Zoo and the Night Safari, Singapore.

Sai is amazed by the biggest eel we have seen. 🙂 River Wonders is the first of its kind in Asia and features freshwater exhibits and a river boat ride as its main highlights.

Conceptualization of such as River Wonders (then known as River Safari) began in early 2007, and its construction was officially announced to the public on 11 February 2009 with an estimated completion date of late 2011.

The Amazon River Quest is a boat ride that features several South American animals such as collared peccaries, brown capuchin monkeys, red howler monkeys, red-backed bearded sakis, brown-headed spider monkeys, giant anteaters, guanacos, Brazilian tapirs, jaguars, black howler monkeys, flamingos and capybaras.

The park boasts a tropical rain forest setting along with as river theme with various animal attractions, theme park rides and other major exhibits.

The park’s boat ride, the Amazon River Quest, was opened to visitors on 7 December 2013. It takes visitors through several animals from South America.

A 15-minute Reservoir Cruise on the Upper Seletar Reservoir, will travel along the outskirts of Singapore Zoo and the Night Safari compound, which border on the reservoir, giving visitors a chance to spot animals including giraffes and Asian elephants.

One of the main attractions is a pair of male and female giant pandas – Kai Kai and Jia Jia – which are housed in a specially constructed climate-controlled enclosure which change throughout the four seasons emulating their original environment.

The zoo grows its own 8,000-square-metre plantation of special bamboo specially for the feeding of the giant pandas. These pandas are a sign of the twentieth anniversary of friendly Sino-Singapore relations.

On 14 August 2021, a panda cub was born to Kai Kai and Jia Jia, later revealed to be a male on 10 September. This was the first after seven breeding rounds since 2015, which did not yield any cubs. The panda cub was conceived via artificial insemination.

After the Amazon River Quest are a series of enclosures, each housing green anacondas, white-lipped tamarins, cotton-top tamarin, a pond for silver arowanas and other fish and Cuvier’s dwarf caimans. Initially, the area also had the Squirrel Monkey Forest featuring a walkthrough squirrel monkey habitat but in 2023, it was renamed Amazonian Wonders and now houses Azara’s agoutis, macaws, white-faced sakis and yellow-footed tortoises.

And that was our quick visit to Singapore’s River Wonders. It is a unique concept for us as we are used to visiting zoo and aquarium separately. This time it’s a combination of both. 🙂