Despite the pandemic, last year proved to be a productive one for Jurong Bird Park, Night Safari, River Wonders and Singapore Zoo. Singapore’s four wildlife parks collectively welcomed about 900 newborns across 160 species, almost doubling in number from the previous year. Of these births and hatchings, 44 species are listed as threatened under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. 

Some exciting births that happened last year include that of Singapore’s first Giant Panda cub Le Le, two new foals to Singapore Zoo’s herd of Grevy’s Zebras, four pups to Singapore Zoo’s pack of African Painted Dogs, and Jurong Bird Park’s first Negros Bleeding-heart Dove chick, whose species is listed as critically endangered.

SINGAPORE, 26 January 2021 – Singapore’s very own Simba was born on 23 October 2020. The male lion cub was conceived through assisted reproduction at the Wildlife Healthcare and Research Centre in Singapore Zoo. Keepers and veterinarians worked to collect semen from Simba’s father Mufasa, a geriatric lion, using the process of electro-ejaculation. In a bittersweet twist, the cub will never know his father as the latter was not revived following the procedure. His deteriorating health was a key factor.

African lions in the wild have an average lifespan of 10-14 years. Mufasa lived to the ripe old age of 20 but did not sire any cubs in his lifetime because of his aggressive behaviour which did not bring about successful pairings with any female. Yet his genes would be of high value in contributing to the genetic diversity and sustainability of African lion populations in zoological institutions. This species is listed as ‘vulnerable’ under the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Thanks to advancements in assisted reproductive technology, Singapore Zoo’s animal care team was able to harness artificial insemination as a means of preserving Mufasa’s bloodline. Lioness Kayla was identified as an ideal candidate for the assisted pregnancy as she was a proven breeder.

River Safari welcomed its fourth Giant Anteater on July 17, bringing the park’s current collection of the threatened species to four. As Iapura is an experienced mother having given birth to her previous pup, Leona, on March 3, 2018, she required no assistance from her keepers when birthing this newborn. Giant Anteaters can have a single offspring, once a year, after a gestation period of about 6 months.

Photo Credits: Wildlife Reserves Singapore

Weighing only 1.6kg at birth, the yet-to-be-named new pup possesses surprising strength for its small stature, climbing and clinging onto her mother’s back with ease. The newborn spends much of her time on her mother’s back. In this position, it can be difficult to spot the pup, as its coat of hair is almost identical to an adult’s, allowing her to blend in with her mother. This trick comes in handy for anteaters in the wild as it protects the pup from predators and makes the mother appear larger, making for less tempting prey.

Currently on her mother’s milk, the pup will gradually be weaned and introduced to solid food—a mixture of insectivore pellets and ant eggs—when she is about five months old.

Members of the public can vote for their preferred name of the pup by commenting on the video on Wildlife Reserves Singapore’s Facebook page from August 21 through 28. The pup’s keepers have shortlisted two names for public voting: “Amazon”, after the giant anteater’s natural habitat in the Amazon rainforest or “Estrella”, meaning ‘star’ in Spanish, the language most often spoken in her native range of South America.

Iapura and her pup will be introduced to the Giant Anteater exhibit along River Safari’s Amazon River Quest boat ride when the latter turns four months old. In the meantime, guests can either spot father, Zapata, or daughter, Leona, by their distinct narrow head, bushy tail and long snout.

The Giant Anteater is the largest species of anteater out of four and is listed as “Vulnerable” on IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species, due to habitat loss, road-kill, and hunting.

The animals cared for by WRS are part of the international conservation-breeding program (EEP) managed by the European Association of Zoo and Aquaria (EAZA).

Singapore Zoo is now home to one-tenth of the global population of endangered Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroos under human care, with the arrival of a female joey.

Born jellybean-sized between July and August last year to mother Blue, the female joey first showed a limb in January this year, before peeking out her hairless head later that same month.

Photo Credit: Wildlife Reserves Singapore

As she approaches her one year milestone, the joey is gradually introducing herself to the world. Although a little clumsy when she first started exploring life outside her mother’s pouch, she can now be seen frequently honing her jumping and climbing skills. While she continues to pop in for mommy’s milk every now and then, she is more content to munch on favorites such as tapioca, carrot, corn, and beans.

With this birth, Singapore Zoo becomes the proud guardian of five Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroos: four adults plus the new joey.

The Tree Kangaroos are managed under a Global Species Management Plan (GSMP). The plan involves coordinated efforts of participating zoos in Australia, Europe, Japan, North America, and Singapore to keep Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroos as a genetically diverse assurance population should there be a catastrophic decline in the wild population.

Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroos are native to the rain forests of New Guinea and Irian Jaya.  They feed mainly on leaves, and are listed as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

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Night Safari’s largest baby of the year officially has a name. Neha, which means love in Hindi, is the chosen moniker for the park’s lovely five-month old baby Asian Elephant!

The calf tugged hearts all over the Internet when she debuted in her colorful play pool earlier this year.

In addition to her daily routine of morning walks, naps and playtime with her favorite Elephant aunty, Tun, Neha has recently discovered a rather messy way to fill her afternoons – gleefully scaling the mud mountain, in her exhibit, with unadulterated joy!

Her infectious joy almost always prompts the other adult females to join in, leaving them all dolled-up in an orange sheen, in time to welcome guests to Night Safari when dusk falls.

While mom’s milk continues to make up her staple diet, Neha has started trying to munch on bananas as she experiments on solid food. She has been steadily gaining weight at a rate of 1-2kg daily (normal for an Elephant), and is now 352kg, more than double her weight at birth. Her human carers say she is an exceedingly playful and carefree elephant.

Neha is the offspring of Chawang and Sri Nandong. She is the youngest of six Asian Elephants (two males and four females), which call Singapore’s Night Safari home.

Photo Credits: Wildlife Reserves Singapore

The Asian or Asiatic Elephant (Elephas maximus) is the only living species of the genus Elephas and is native to Southeast Asia from India in the west to Borneo in the east. Three subspecies are recognized: E. m. maximus from Sri Lanka, the E. m. indicus from mainland Asia, and E. m. sumatranus from the island of Sumatra. Asian Elephants are the largest living land animals in Asia.

Since 1986, E. maximus has been listed as “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List, as the population has declined by at least 50% over the last three generations (estimated to be 60–75 years). Asian Elephants are primarily threatened by degradation, fragmentation and loss of habitat, and poaching.

In general, the Asian Elephant is smaller than the African Elephant and has the highest body point on the head. The back is convex or level. The ears are small with dorsal borders folded laterally. It has up to 20 pairs of ribs and 34 caudal vertebrae. The feet have more nail-like structures than those of African Elephant: five on each forefoot, and four on each hind foot.

To support the conservation of this majestic species, Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) plays an active role on the steering committee of the Asian Captive Elephant Working Group, and was instrumental in setting up the Asian Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpes Virus Taskforce. In addition, WRS has funded field projects for Management and Ecology of Malaysian Elephants (MEME) in Malaysia and ElefantAsia in Laos, and currently supports the work of the Elephant Response Unit in Way Kambas National Park in Sumatra.

On August 31, Singapore Zoo proudly welcomed its first Giraffe calf in 28 years. The male calf is the first offspring for mom, Roni, and dad, Growie, who both arrived at the Singapore Zoo in 2005, from Israel and the Netherlands respectively.

The unnamed calf has grown 40cm since birth, and now stands at 2.3 meters (7.5 feet). He is the tallest ‘SG50’ baby, and is a “symbol of Singapore soaring to new heights in the years following its Jubilee celebration”. ‘SG50’ was a nationwide effort to celebrate Singapore’s 50th birthday in 2015. 

Photo & Video Credits: Wildlife Reserves Singapore

During the calf’s first month, zookeepers kept the mother and baby separated from the rest of the Giraffe herd to allow them to bond, and to ensure the calf was nursing properly. Keepers also needed time to baby-proof the exhibit as a safety precaution before allowing the calf to explore its new surroundings. Existing barriers had to be modified to ensure the baby can explore the exhibit safely.

Gradually, mother and baby were reintroduced to the other two Giraffes in the herd: Growie, the father, and Lucy, an unrelated female, which arrived in Singapore together with Roni. The conditioning process took close to three weeks, as keepers wanted to ensure the calf was accepted by the herd. All four are now comfortably sharing the exhibit and can regularly be seen grooming each other to strengthen their bonds.

Aside from the mother’s milk, the calf can now be seen nibbling on leaves and chopped vegetables, such as carrots. He now spends his days exploring and running around in the exhibit at the Zoo’s Wild Africa zone. While he’s starting to get used to passing trams and visitors, he will still race back to the safety of mom’s towering presence when faced with something unfamiliar.

“Animal babies are always a cause for celebration as they are a good indication that the animals under our care feel comfortable and secure enough to breed in the environment that we’ve created for them. We hope the calf will tug at visitors’ heartstrings and inspire them to find out more about Giraffes and other animals that thrive in the same environment as these majestic creatures,” said Dr. Cheng Wen-Haur, Chief Life Sciences Officer, Wildlife Reserves Singapore.

Born August 6^th, 2014, female Manatee calf ‘Canola’ is the offspring of Wildlife Reserves Singapore’s largest Manatee, 23-year-old ‘Eva’. For unknown reasons, Eva abandoned her latest calf, despite having successfully raised eight offspring in the past and being a grandmother of two.

Photo Credits: Wildlife Reserves Singapore

To ensure that animals in River Safari retain their parental behaviors, zoologists strive to have the parents raise their offspring. In the case of Canola, there was no other option but to have aquarists hand-raise the newborn.

The 33kg (73 lb) abandoned calf, at River Safari’s Amazon Flooded Forest exhibit, had to be watched 24 hours for the first few days, fed every two to three hours during the first three months, and re-introduced gradually to her family. It was a Herculean task that the team of aquarists dived into to give baby Canola a fighting chance to live.

Mr. Wah Yap Hon, Curator at River Safari, said, “Hand-raised animals tend to imprint on their human caregivers. The babies will attach themselves to, and learn certain behaviors from their human foster parents, and may not have a chance to bond with their family or other members of their species. In the case of Eva and Canola, we stepped in as a last resort to ensure the survival of this precious baby.”

Similar to caring for a human baby, hand-raising an animal baby requires planning and hard work. For Canola, it involved bottle-feeding every two to three hours, from 8am to 10pm daily, for the first three months. To increase her fat intake and substitute her mother’s highly nutritious milk, Canola was given a special milk formula infused with canola oil, which inspired her name. To ensure Canola’s safety, the aquarists moved her to a shallow holding pool, to minimize the risk of other manatees crowding her and making it challenging for her to rise to the water’s surface to breathe.

“Under the doting care and great team effort of her human caregivers, Canola steadily gained weight and hit all the important developmental milestones of a healthy calf. By December, Canola started swimming with the rest of the herd in the main aquarium, forming close bonds with her species,” said Wah.

Since February, Canola’s caregivers have gradually cut down on her milk intake to four feedings a day, to accommodate her increasing diet of vegetables. Manatees spend six to eight hours a day grazing on aquatic plants, which is why they are also known as ‘sea cows’. Adults typically consume 50-100kg 110lb to 220lb) of vegetation a day, equivalent to 10-15 percent of their body weight.

In celebration of World Animal Day this year, Wildlife Reserves Singapore announced the arrival of some of the world’s rarest babies, and among them, a critically endangered Sunda Pangolin. 

Photo Credits: Wildlife Reserves Singapore

The new baby, ‘Radin’, was born July 13^th to his protective mother, ‘Nita’. The birth of the critically endangered Sunda Pangolin, in the Night Safari, is one of the most iconic births for WRS. The species is native to Singapore and is the logo for the Wildlife Reserves Singapore Conservation Fund. 

Night Safari is the world’s first zoological institution to house the elusive, solitary, and nocturnal creature. In recent years, the endangered Sunda Pangolin has been driven closer to extinction by illegal trafficking, habitat loss and being hunted for their meat and scales at an unsustainable level. According to the IUCN Red List, there have been suspected population declines of around 80% over the past 21 years, and there is a projected future decline of greater that 80% during the next several decades.

Accredited zoos and reserves, like Wildlife Reserves Singapore, are crucial to the future survival of the species. This is the third successful birth of a Sunda Pangolin in WRS since 2011.

The first Giant Otter to be born in all of Asia arrived at River Safari, part of Wildlife Reserve Singapore, on August 10.   River Safari is the only zoo in Asia to hold Giant Otters, which are among the most endangered Otters in the world.

Photo Credit:   Wildlife Reserves Singapore

The unnamed male pup now weighs about 3.5 pounds (1.6kg) and is about two feet long (60cm). While the pup is petite for now, he will eventually weigh 75 pounds (34kg) and grow to six feet (1.8m) in length.  River Safari is the first zoological institution in Asia to feature Giant Otters, which are the largest of the world’s 13 Otter species.

Found primarily in South America’s Amazon River basin, Giant Otters are ferocious predators that hunt piranhas, anacondas and even caimans, earning them the title “river wolves.” Often hunted for their fur and threatened by habitat loss, these river giants are becoming rare in the wild.

Dr. Cheng Wen-Haur, Chief Life Sciences Officer at Wildlife Reserves Singapore said, “With increasing threats such as habitat destruction and poaching, captive breeding programs play a pivotal role in conserving threatened species for our future generations.”