SINGAPORE – The Bird Park will be relocated from Jurong to Mandai as part of a new 126ha eco-tourism hub in northern Singapore.

One of Singapore’s most iconic attractions, the avian paradise has 19 exhibits and is home to 5,000 birds from more than 400 species, a far cry from the early years when there were 1,000 birds from 60 species.

Here are some interesting facts you might not have known about Singapore’s oldest wildlife park.

1. TOO EXPENSIVE TO LOOK AFTER TIGERS AND ELEPHANTS

The attraction was built on the vision of former Deputy Prime Minister, the late Dr Goh Keng Swee, who saw value in having a bird park in Jurong as a green escape in an urbanising city.

In 1968, when asked why not a zoo instead, Dr Goh said: “Birdseed costs less than meat.”

In former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s book From Third World to First: The Singapore Story, it was mentioned that Mr Lee and Dr Goh felt big-ticket tourist attractions, like tigers and elephants, were very expensive to upkeep. Hence, a bird park was built ahead of a zoo.

On Jan 3, 1971, Jurong Bird Park, built at a cost of $3.5 million, was opened to the public.

2. THE SHOW MUST GO ON

The evolution of the park’s iconic bird show began in 1982, when the birds were known for performing kitschy tricks such as riding bicycles on high wire and playing basketball.

In the mid- to late 1990s, staff realised they should not be making the birds do stunts that a human could do.

The birds were then trained to showcase their natural abilities instead, such as swooping above the audience’s heads or engaging in cheeky banter with the presenter.

3. BURGERS AND A HOSPITAL

The park underwent the most changes during the 1990s. At least four new exhibits – including the Jungle Jewels Flight Aviary, one of the four large free-flight aviaries where visitors can get close to birds such as the yellow-hooded blackbird and sun conures – were introduced.

A $10 million makeover was completed in 2006, including a new entrance plaza and the park’s own Bongo Burgers restaurant.

It also boasts an avian hospital, and its breeding and research centre was opened in 2012, giving visitors a behind-the-scenes look at the growth process of birds from incubation to weaning.

4. UNIQUE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

More than 200 species have been bred at the park since day one, including threatened species such as the Bali mynah and blue-throated macaw.

The 2ha Waterfall Aviary is the second largest walk-in aviary in the world, home to more than 600 free-flying birds and a 30m-high waterfall.

The nine storey-high Lory Loft is the world’s largest walk-in flight aviary for lories and lorikeets, with over 1,000 free-flying lories in a space covering 3,000 sq m.

5. PM LEE ON HAND WITH A HAWK

The park has long been a favourite haunt for school excursions, family day outings and shutterbugs.

Like many Singaporeans, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong holds fond memories during his visits over the years.

In a Facebook post in January, he shared a 1988 photo of a Harris hawk perched on his hand when he opened the Fuji Hawk Centre (now the Hawk Arena).

What new Mandai will look like

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

PM Lee Facebook

This article was first published on June 1, 2016.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.

He thought a bomb had gone off when he heard a bang behind him.

When he turned around, he saw that a black car and a white car had collided at the junction of Yishun Avenue 2 and Yishun Ring Road.

Ashvin Gunasegaran, 12, ran towards the junction, concerned about the condition of the occupants in the cars.

The Primary 6 pupil and five friends were walking home after remedial classes at Yishun Primary School around 1pm on Tuesday when the accident happened.

He told The New Paper in an interview at his Yishun Ring Road home yesterday that they were the first to reach the scene.

He did not do anything at first because he thought that adults, who arrived soon after them, would help the victims.

But no one went forward. Some of them were using their mobile phones to take photos and videos of the accident scene.

That was when he decided he had to do something to help the victims.

He said: “I was afraid the accident might have been fatal. All I could think was, ‘Oh my God, please be okay.’

“My friends were telling me it’s too dangerous, but I thought that someone needed to make sure the drivers were okay.”

He waited for the traffic lights at the pedestrian crossing to turn green before approaching the white car, which had mounted the central divider.

Ashvin said the driver, a pregnant woman, had a deep cut on her arm and was crying, but she assured him she was not badly injured.

She asked him to help look for her glasses, which had fallen off, but he could not find them.

HELP

Her female passenger managed to get out of the car, but the pregnant woman was stuck inside because her door was jammed.

Ashvin tried to open the door in vain. He then went to check on the driver of the black car.

She assured him she was not injured, and told him she was calling the police. She had a male passenger.

Ashvin said he then waited for an ambulance to arrive to take the pregnant woman to hospital before leaving the scene.

The police and the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) were alerted to the accident at 1.10pm.

An SCDF spokesman confirmed that the pregnant driver was taken to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital in an ambulance. The police said she is 31 years old.

Ashvin told his mother, Madam Helen Louisa, 50, about the incident after he got home.

The housewife told TNP: “When he showed me the photo his friend had taken, I was surprised that he had gone onto the road because there must have been oncoming traffic, and it must have been dangerous.

“But I’m very proud of him, especially when he told me that one of the drivers was a pregnant lady, because there were two lives at risk.”

Ashvin’s sister, Miss Laavanya Gunasegaran, 25, was just as proud.

The early-childhood teacher posted about her brother’s bravery and selflessness on Facebook. The post has since received more than 200 likes and has been shared over 1,800 times.

The driver of the black car contacted Miss Laavanya yesterday through a friend on Facebook to thank Ashvin for his kindness and bravery.

She said she was grateful his family had raised a fine and helpful boy.

Madam Helen said: “Ashvin kept on telling me yesterday how he was concerned about the pregnant lady and how he hoped that she and her baby were okay.”

Other good samaritans

DEC 16, 2015

Two men were trapped inside the cabin of a lorry that had overturned on its side after crashing into a car near the junction of Sengkang East and Buangkok East Drive.

Petroleum surveyor Arief Budiman, 28, and his friend used their car to block oncoming traffic, then used an iron bar to break the windscreen of the lorry to rescue the occupants.

JULY 30, 2014

Accounts manager Kelvin Seo, 29, was heading home to Woodlands on his motorcycle around 7pm when he lost consciousness after an apparent hit-and-run accident on the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE).

When he regained consciousness, he found himself in an ambulance.

He later found out that other motorists had stopped to tend to him as he lay injured on the BKE for about half-an-hour.

OCT 23, 2013

A tipper truck went out of control on the Ayer Rajah Expressway, turned on its side and landed on a taxi at about 8.50am.

The taxi driver, Mr Ng Kim Beng, 46, and his passenger, Mr Vincent Ng Say Ho, 28, were trapped in the vehicle.

Several motorists stopped to help them. They used their bare hands to remove debris such as glass and metal.

A passer-by also stopped to comfort the driver and prayed with him.

MAY 30, 2012

Technician Muhammad Farhan Yusof, 24, was heading home after work when his motorcycle collided with an SMRT bus on the Pan Island Expressway just before 6pm. The collision sliced off his right leg just above the knee.

Eight men stepped up to help Mr Farhan. They tried to slow the bleeding by elevating Mr Farhan’s right thigh. One eventually managed to stop the bleeding with a tourniquet.

This article was first published on June 2, 2016.
Get The New Paper for more stories.

SINGAPORE – Such is the life of the city rat: One moment, it is feasting on an endless buffet of bread and cheese in a supermarket, and seconds later, it is scampering in search of a safe place to hide.

This is the story of one such rat discovered at a NTUC Fairprice outlet in Hougang’s Kang Kar Mall last week.

The rat, which appears to be as long as a loaf of bread, had already munched through packets of raisin bread, wholemeal buns, walnut bread, Singapore-style pandan bread and good old high-fibre white bread, when a shopper caught it red-handed at the back of the bread shelf.

Startled, the rat paused for two seconds before launching its escape behind even more loaves of bread.

The shopper, 37-year-old delivery driver Sun Yu Ming, quickly devised a plan to force the rodent out of hiding. As he slammed packet after packet of bread against the bottom shelves, the rat frantically searched for a way out of the war zone and eventually had no choice but to leave the shelves and enter the wide-open aisle.

When it emerged, the rat jumped and scurried as fast as it could away from Mr Sun, who seemed bent on getting it caught.

Rat has bread feast at Hougang NTUC Fairprice

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

facebook

The tiny animal then headed straight for the vegetable section as if it had already planned and memorised an escape route specifically for a situation like this. Although Mr Sun gave chase, it soon disappeared behind the baskets of vegetables and found safety in its new hiding place.

Photos of leftovers from the rat’s feast and a video of the chase was uploaded by Mr Sun on Facebook earlier this week. The photos and video have already reached more than 5,500 shares since, as netizens expressed shock and disgust that such a thing could even take place.

Mr Sun elaborated on the incident in his post, writing that a supervisor at the supermarket did not appear concerned when he reported what he saw.

“He still could reply: ‘There’s rats and you want me to catch?'”, Mr Sun wrote.

On Wednesday (June 1), Mr Sun uploaded another video, with a short voice recording purportedly of his exchange with the staff member.

In the recording, a man can be heard saying in Mandarin that the rat had also helped itself to other food items such as pork and chicken.

A few hours earlier, NTUC Fairprice acknowledged that a rat was indeed found in its Kang Kar Mall store. It added that the rat had already been captured on Saturday (May 28), before Mr Sun posted the video online.

“The store has since disposed all products that may have been compromised by the pest and have sanitized the area thoroughly,” the supermarket chain said in a statement on its Facebook page.

Officers from the National Environment Agency had given the outlet “a good report” two months prior to the incident, the statement said, adding that the outlet’s pest problems stem from “external sources”.

“We thus collaborate with external parties like town councils on preventive measures. Be assured that should any pests be found in our stores, we will get our pest control specialists to respond and be on site within two hours.”

The Straits Times reported on Thursday that pest control specialists had done checks at the store from February to May.

A spokesman from Fairprice was quoted as saying: “In May alone, they visited the store another five times”.

Despite these repeated measures, it seems the rat Mr Sun spotted last week had picked up some very important survival skills and managed to still binge on all the goodies it could get its paws on.

But alas in the end, as the life of the city rat goes, its own brazenness was the very thing that put its life of opulence to and end – or at least we hope so.

Chinese man feeds noodles to 130 rats living in his apartment

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

Video screengrabs

ljessica@sph.com.sg