Night Safari

The Night Safari opened in 1994 as the first zoo in the world designed specifically for night visits, and the premise still works because most of the animals in it are nocturnal and are therefore doing something. It occupies forty hectares of secondary rainforest next to Singapore Zoo, lit by subdued lighting engineered to resemble moonlight, bright enough to see by and dim enough not to disturb the animals. A tram loops the site with commentary, which is the standard way in, but the walking trails are where the visit becomes interesting: the Fishing Cat Trail, the Leopard Trail and the Wallaby Trail put you at fence-height with animals rather than rolling past them. Around a thousand animals live here, many of them Asian species rarely awake during a daytime zoo visit.

What you actually see

• The tram loop - the guided circuit through the main habitats, the usual first move.
• The walking trails - Fishing Cat, Leopard and Wallaby trails, closer and quieter than the tram.
• Asian nocturnal species - clouded leopards, slow lorises, pangolins, civets and Malayan tigers.
• Creatures of the Night show - a keeper presentation on nocturnal behaviour.

When to go

Opens in the evening and runs late. Book the earliest slot if you want the tram before the queues build, or a later one for thinner crowds. Heavy rain disrupts the walking trails more than the tram.

Honest expectations

It is expensive, and combined tickets with the neighbouring parks push it higher. The tram is the way most people see it and it moves briskly, so the walking trails are where the actual watching happens. Flash photography is banned and the light is genuinely low, so phone photographs will mostly disappoint; look rather than shoot. Some enclosures are tight, which is a fair thing to weigh up.

Nearby

Singapore Zoo, River Wonders and Bird Paradise are all on the same Mandai site.