ISLAND CONSERVATION SOCIETY-Jurong Bird Park |20 August 2007

As a rule I would rather see wildlife in the wild not an artificial setting but Jurong Bird Park in Singapore is something of an exception.  Like most things that Singaporeans turn their hand to, they do it extraordinarily well with that little bit more imagination than others. Admittedly, Jurong also has its fair share of corny gimmicks. Quite honestly I can manage without parrots or birds of prey performing tricks for human amusement. But there is a lot more than this at Jurong. So, while in Singapore last week, I decided to spend a day at the park.

Some years ago, Alan Burger did a study on Cousin, attaching depth gauges to shearwaters. He found that they are highly proficient divers, pursuing and catching fish with Fouke (Wedge-tailed Shearwater) reaching depths of over 60 metres and Riga (Audubon’s Shearwater) achieving a highly respectable 35 metres. I would love to see shearwaters hunting underwater, but their feeding grounds are far from the granitic islands of Seychelles, so it would involve a major expedition. At Jurong Bird Park, one exhibit contains Puffins (similar birds to shearwaters, from the North Atlantic). The birds perch on artificial cliffs above an aquarium, which is at eye level. The birds plunge dive into the clear water, providing a fascinating underwater spectacle of how birds can use their wings for underwater flight and their feet for propulsion.

Jurong also offers opportunities to get photos of birds that are rare or difficult to approach. The open plan pools make a natural setting to take pictures of birds such as flamingos, moorhens and night herons. All of these breed in Seychelles but they are not easy to photograph (especially the flamingos, found only in eastern Grand Terre, Aldabra). Mind you, it was only after some time I realised the Night Herons were not even part of the bird collection and their wings had not been clipped. They could fly perfectly well and actually commuted back and forth to the park to feed. So, Jurong must be doing something right if the local birds chose to be there!

The aviaries of Jurong are better than any I have seen elsewhere partly because of the number of trees and bushes inside them, designed to replicate the birds’ natural habitat and partly because of their sheer size.  One of these is the world’s largest walk-in aviary complete with the world’s largest artificial waterfall. There are 9,000 birds with 600 species represented. This is still just a small fraction of the worlds’ species so it was to my surprise when I saw a very familiar face, when a Tisren (Madagascar Fody) landed on a branch in front of me. Like many of the birds, he was a long way from home, but that did not stop some at least from building nests and raising chicks in the aviaries.

As an avian educational facility, it is hard to beat Jurong. There is nothing like it in Seychelles, yet I don’t think Seychelles needs it anyway. The great thing about Jurong is that it opens the eyes of city dwellers to the beauty of nature and of birds in particular.

Seychelles already has something much better. Islands such as Cousin, Bird and Aride are open air aviaries that no man made park could ever hope to replicate. If you are ever in Singapore, Jurong Bird Park is well worth a visit, but for a real wildlife experience you still can’t beat the real thing.

The Island Conservation Society promotes the conservation and restoration of island ecosystems.