Excursion to Singapore Zoo

Hi mummies and daddies!

We had an awesome time at the Singapore Zoo on Tuesday. The children were delighted to see the white tiger, cheetahs, lion, leopard and puma. They were very engaged in completing the 'Big wild cat' activity book designed for the excursion and learned many interesting facts about them. The weather was great and we were extremely lucky to be able to spot all the big wild cats in the zoo. Enjoy the pictures!

On the bus and on our way there, the children could not hold their excitement and kept chanting, "We want to go to the zoo" and, "Faster bus".

First up, we went on the tiger trek to see Omar, the white tiger.

We used our binoculars to have a closer look at Omar.

We drew our observations of the white tiger. We learned that white tigers are Bengal tigers with a very unusual set of genes.

It is sad to know that there are only 5 kinds and 3, 200 tigers left in the world today; Bengal tigers, Siberian tigers, South China tigers, Indochinese tigers and Sumatran tigers.

Our next stop is the cheetah hut and what a treat it was to be able to see the cheetah in such close proximity! It was lying down on the lush grassland and basking in the sun. 

We also spotted another cheetah lying down just a few metres away from us beside the glass panel. What an even closer encounter it was! We took the opportunity to draw our observations of the cheetahs.

We compared the sizes of the cheetah, leopard and lion skulls in the display glass. We learned that the cheetah has the smallest skull as cheetahs have small heads to help them run fast.

We also discovered the difference between a cheetah and a leopard's coat. Did you know that cheetahs have solid, individual and evenly distributed spots whereas leopards have rosettes in large numbers with a slightly different colour inside? 

The children also discovered that cheetah has a flexible spine and long legs to make huge bounds when it sprint. One cheetah stride can cover up to 6 metres!

We attempted our very own long jumps and realized that most of us can only jump and cover about 1 metre. 

We visited the lion next and Akshat took a good look at the lion using his binoculars.

We went inside the air-conditioned lion viewing gallery to have a water break and draw our observations of the lion. 

Our view of the lion from the lion viewing gallery.

We also spotted the puma or the mountain lion having a late morning nap. We took the opportunity to have our snack break by the benches in front of the puma exhibit.

After snacks, we walked pass the leopard exhibit and spotted the leopard!

Did you know that of all the big cats, the leopard spends the most time in trees? However, it is still highly endangered due to deforestation, poaching and persecution from farmers.

It was an eventful day spent at the Singapore Zoo learning all about the big wild cats. We had a first hand experience looking at them with our very own eyes and we could not ask for more.

Lastly, a big thank you to our parent volunteers Iqbal, Maggie and Eugene for spending time with us at the zoo and taking excellent care of the children. We hope you enjoyed your time with us.

Here are some of the children's reflections that they shared when they came back from the zoo...

Conor: Best part is getting the map and getting to see the puma while eating our snacks.

Akshat: It was nice as we get to see the cheetah, but we cannot sit on it because there is a glass.

Siddiq: I like seeing the cheetah because we got to do a lot of activities there and we get to know things about the cheetah such as it can run 115km/hr.

Celestine: I like to see the lion because I like the lion.

Adira: I like the zoo trip as I get to see the leopard and cheetahs with my binoculars. I also like having a break in the nice cool room (lion viewing gallery). I also like playing during snack time.

Sasha: My favourite part was seeing everything because we did lots of activities there.

Anya: My favourite part is when we got to see the white tiger because it looked very close to my stuffed white tiger.

Serenity: My favourite part is when we saw the leopard and the tiger. I like the tiger because it looked pretty strong and I like the leopard because I think it can hide at night.

Till the next post!