Blog 6: My Discovery in the Singapore Zoo

Last Sunday, we went to Singapore Zoo to have our study of service learning program. At there, I gained not only the primary methodology of a successful service for others, but also a new realization of a wonderful zoo.
I found many differences between most Chinese zoos and the Singapore Zoo. However, I think the biggest and the most important difference is the distance between people and the nature. The difference is shown in many aspects.
First of all, Singapore Zoo provides more possibility for people to communicate with animals. Sometimes, it seems as if we are the ones being watched by animals but not the animals, especially when we walk on a narrow road through a jungle or a bush because most of the animals are living in habitats free and comfortably without a limitation of a cage made of iron wire. For instance, when I got out the lecture hall, I amazingly found that there were many bats sleeping soundly above my head. When I went across a bridge, I saw some crocodiles having sunshine bath comfortably. I also saw some orangutans doing some difficult movements like some gymnastic athletes on a rope above. Two Great Tortoises were lying on the ground without any movements like big stones near us. Some small kangaroos were palying and taking photos with people. Two white tigers were having a bath in a pond not far away from us. The natural and relaxing environment really impressed me a lot. I could imagine that if the tigers do not have danger to us, we could even take photos and play with them. To sum up, the zoo gives people more chances to be in touch with the nature and close to the animals.
Moreover, many buildings in the Singapore Zoo mix well with the nature. I saw that many houses were made of wood and had the same colors with the surroundings. What impressed me most was the toilets because they were well decorated in many details. The washbowl looked like a root of a big tree and the partition was like a fence made of small trees. There was even a fish pond in the toilet. All of them made us feel as if in the wild nature far away from big cities without noise and pollution.
As we can see, the Singapore Zoo makes people closer to the nature and let people enjoy the experience of communicating with animals. Actually, these are what we really want in a zoo. Thus, there is no doubt that the Singapore Zoo is so popular.