The Night Safari is the world’s first night zoo that allows visitors to observe nocturnal animals in a natural habitat. Designed to be experienced at night, the Night Safari is radically different from the typical zoo and nocturnal house. The idea of a night zoo ...

The Singapore Zoo (formerly known as the Singapore Zoological Gardens) was opened in 1973 with a modest collection of about 300 animals from some 70 species. Situated on the promontory of the Seletar Reservoir, the zoo adopts an “open concept” in which the animals ...

The Leopard cat is a small, carnivorous mammal that looks like a domestic cat with a leopard-like coat. It is widely distributed in various parts of Asia but is considered a rare animal in Singapore, where it is believed to be the only remaining wild cat. It is ...

Punggol Zoo was Singapore’s first full-size public zoo and bird park, and the first to be known as the Singapore Zoo. It was established in 1928 by William Lawrence Soma Basapa (b. 1893–d. 1943) on Punggol Road to accommodate his growing private collection of animals ...

Located at the National University of Singapore (NUS), the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (LKCNHM) was formerly known as Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR). Serving as a biodiversity museum, it houses the Zoological Reference Collection – which ...

The robber crab (Birgus latro) is the largest of the various crab species found on Christmas Island. Able to climb trees, the crabs only return to water during breeding season to lay eggs. However, the most notorious crab species is the red crab (Gecarcoidea natalis), ...

The Sunda Slow Loris (scientific name: Nycticebus coucang) is a small monkey-like primate found in Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia. It is one of several species of slow lorises, all of which are found in Asia. Slow lorises are among the few mammals ...

Bats belong to an order of mammals known as Chiroptera, a term that comes from the Greek words cheiro (“hand”) and ptera (“wing”), aptly describing their most distinctive feature. There are about 1,100 species of bats in the world and 30 have been documented in ...

The Dugong is a large marine mammal that belongs to the same mammalian order as manatees. The species in this order, known as Sirenia, are sometimes called sea cows and are thought to have evolved from an ancestor related to elephants. Found in the Indo-West Pacific ...

The black-naped tern (Sterna sumatrana) is a slender white bird found in rocky islets near the Singapore coast. It was one of the bird species identified and named by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1822. Its species name, sumatrana, describes where Raffles collected the ...

The Raffles’ banded langur (Presbytis femoralis femoralis) is black-and-white monkey native to Singapore. However, it is on the verge of extinction in Singapore with an estimated population of just 40 to 60 monkeys. In the 2008 edition of The Singapore Red Data ...

Tigers in Singapore (Panthera tigris jacksoni) were sighted mostly in the forested areas of Bukit Timah, Choa Chu Kang, Tampines and Changi during the 19th century until the 1930s. They became a menace to the populace when large swathes of Singapore’s forests were ...

The blue-throated bee-eater (Merops viridis) is a bird with blue, green and brown plumage. It is one of two bee-eater species found in Singapore.

The olive-backed sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis) is one of Singapore’s resident birds. In 2002, it was one of five birds shortlisted by the Nature Society (Singapore) in an unofficial campaign to select Singapore’s national bird. The olive-backed sunbird is featured ...

The Sunda pangolin (scientific name: Manis javanica) is a scaly anteater that is found in Singapore and various other parts of Southeast Asia. It is a land mammal but has often been mistaken to be a reptile because of its scale-covered body. A shy and solitary ...

The white-collared kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris) is one of eight documented species of kingfishers in Singapore. It is commonly spotted in mangrove and coastal areas, gardens and parks. This kingfisher species was featured on the Bird Series S$10 currency ...

The black-naped oriole (Oriolus chinensis) is a bird from the oriole family. It has yellow-and-black plumage and is found in many parts of Asia. It is one of the most common bird species in Singapore.

The Singapura cat a.k.a. Kucinta (Kuchinta) is regarded as Singapore's Tourism Board's mascot, although claims of it having originated from Singapore remain questionable. The Cat Fanciers Association in the US gave the Singapura cat pedigree status in 1988.

The Brahminy kite (Haliastur indus) is a medium-sized raptor or bird of prey. Nicknamed the “Singapore Bald Eagle”, it is one of the commonest raptors in Singapore, and is frequently seen in flight over urban areas and suitable sites such as Jurong Lake. Large ...

First mooted by the Director of Fisheries in 1950, the Marine Fisheries Research Department (MFRD) was established in 1969. It was located at Changi Fisheries Complex at Changi Point before moving to Lim Chu Kang Agri-Bio Park in 1999. It is currently situated ...