The End of the Beginning at Jurong

I've traveled pretty extensively within the United States for the sole purpose of going to a specific zoo, sometimes specifically to see a single species.  I've never travelled internationally for that purpose, however.  International travel is much more difficult and expensive, and while I'll certainly tack on a zoo or two on the infrequent occasions when I go abroad, I've never planned a trip expressly for that purpose.

There are only three countries that I can think of for which I might be tempted to organize a trip with the primary goal of going to see zoos.  The United Kingdom, home to the history-rich London Zoo, Whipsnade, and Gerald Durrell's facility in Jersey, to say nothing of other great collections.  Germany, home to many of the world's finest and most historically significant zoos.  And Singapore.

Singapore, a city which is also an independent nation at the tip of the Malaysia Peninsula, is home to four excellent zoos that, together, make up the Mandai Wildlife Group, formerly known as Wildlife Reserves Singapore.  There is the excellent conventional zoo, the River Wonders, and the nocturnal-themed Night Safari.  There is also the facility that I've always been the most fascinated in.  As of last week, it no longer exists.

Founded in 1971, Jurong Bird Park was the largest bird collection in Asia; it was rivaled only by Germany's Walsrode Bird Park.  Its 50 acres were filled with a variety of birdlife found in few other collections on earth spread throughout multiple gorgeous aviaries - 5,000 individuals of 400 species at one count.  Half a dozen species each of penguins and pelicans, massive flocks of flamingos and other colonial birds, and the only Philippine eagles on display outside of their native islands were among the stars here.  Pictures that I saw of elevated walkways snaking through lush aviaries and over cascading waterfalls (the tallest of which was 35 meters)  made a distinct impression on me.  It's a park that can best be described with superlatives - the biggest this, the tallest that, the most of this, the first to do that.  The grounds themselves are home to a variety of wild animals from smooth-coated otters to colugos, the bizarre gliding mammals sometimes known as "flying lemurs."  And to think that we have to make do with squirrels...

The Jurong story isn't quite ending.  The birds are all being moved to a new facility, to be called Bird Paradise, closer to the rest of the Mandai Wildlife Reserves.  Together, they will form one massive complex of wildlife attractions that will only enhance Singapore's reputation as a zoological mecca.  I'm sure that, at some point, I'll make my way to see it, and I know that I'll find it spectacular.  Since the park was first built in the 1970s, so much as been learned about avian husbandry and welfare that can be incorporated into the new facilities.

At the same time, part of me is sad that I never go to see Jurong itself in its storied, legendary glory.  It's like a little piece of history is closed off now, that I won't be able to experience.  Seeing birds is one thing.  Experiencing an institution is entirely another.