Dragons attack Indonesians

Komodo dragons have shark-like teeth and poisonous venom that can kill a person within hours of a bite. Yet villagers who have lived for generations alongside the world's largest lizard were not afraid _ until the dragons started to attack.

The stories spread quickly across this smattering of tropical islands in southeastern Indonesia, the only place the endangered reptiles can still be found in the wild: Two people were killed since 2007 _ a young boy and a fisherman _ and others were badly wounded after being charged unprovoked.

Komodo dragon attacks are still rare, experts note. But fear is swirling through the fishing villages, along with questions on how best to live with the dragons in the future.

Main, a 46-year-old park ranger, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, was doing paperwork when a dragon slithered up the stairs of his wooden hut in Komodo National Park and went for his ankles dangling beneath the desk. When the ranger tried to pry open the beast's powerful jaws, it locked its teeth into his hand.

"I thought I wouldn't survive... I've spent half my life working with Komodos and have never seen anything like it," said Main, pointing to his jagged gashes, sewn up with 55 stitches and still swollen three months later. "Luckily, my friends heard my screams and got me to hospital in time."

Komodos, which are popular at zoos in the United States to Europe, grow to be 10 feet (3 meters) long and 150 pounds (70 kilograms). All of the estimated 2,500 left in the wild can be found within the 700-square-mile (1,810-square-kilometer) Komodo National Park, mostly on its two largest islands, Komodo and Rinca. The lizards on neighboring Padar were wiped out in the 1980s when hunters killed their main prey, deer.

Though poaching is illegal, the sheer size of the park _ and a shortage of rangers _ makes it almost impossible to patrol, said Heru Rudiharto, a biologist and reptile expert. Villagers say the dragons are hungry and more aggressive toward humans because their food is being poached, though park officials are quick to disagree.

The giant lizards have always been dangerous, said Rudiharto. However tame they may appear, lounging beneath trees and gazing at the sea from white-sand beaches, they are fast, strong and deadly.

The animals are believed to have descended from a larger lizard on Indonesia's main island Java or Australia around 30,000 years ago. They can reach speeds of up to 18 miles (nearly 30 kilometers) per hour, their legs winding around their low, square shoulders like egg beaters.

When they catch their prey, they carry out a frenzied biting spree that releases venom, according to a new study this month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors, who used surgically excised glands from a terminally ill dragon at the Singapore Zoo, dismissed the theory that prey die from blood poisoning caused by toxic bacteria in the lizard's mouth.

The long, jagged teeth are the lizard's primary weapons, said Bryan Fry of the University of Melbourne.

"They deliver these deep, deep wounds," he said. "But the venom keeps it bleeding and further lowers the blood pressure, thus bringing the animal closer to unconsciousness."

Four people have been killed in the last 35 years (2009, 2007, 2000 and 1974) and at least eight injured in just over a decade. But park officials say these numbers aren't overly alarming given the steady stream of tourists and the 4,000 people who live in their midst.

"Any time there's an attack, it gets a lot of attention," Rudiharto said. "But that's just because this lizard is exotic, archaic, and can't be found anywhere but here."

Still, the recent attacks couldn't have come at a worse time.

The government is campaigning hard to get the park onto a new list of the Seven Wonders of Nature _ a long shot, but an attempt to at least raise awareness. The park's rugged hills and savannahs are home to orange-footed scrub fowl, wild boar and small wild horses, and the surrounding coral reefs and bays harbor more than a dozen whale species, dolphins and sea turtles.

Claudio Ciofi, who works at the Department of Animal Biology and Genetics at the University of Florence in Italy, said if komodos are hungry, they may be attracted to villages by the smell of drying fish and cooking, and "encounters can become more frequent."

Villagers wish they knew the answer.

They say they've always lived peacefully with Komodos. A popular traditional legend tells of a man who once married a dragon "princess." Their twins, a human boy, Gerong, and a lizard girl, Orah, were separated at birth.

When Gerong grew up, the story goes, he met a fierce-looking beast in the forest. But just as he was about to spear it, his mother appeared, revealing to him that the two were brother and sister.

"How could the dragons get so aggressive?" Hajj Amin, 51, taking long slow drags off his clove cigarettes, as other village elders gathering beneath a wooden house on stilts nodded. Several dragons lingered nearby, drawn by the rancid smell of fish drying on bamboo mats beneath the blazing sun. Also strolling by were dozens of goats and chickens.

"They never used to attack us when we walked alone in the forest, or attack our children," Amin said. "We're all really worried about this."

The dragons eat 80 percent of their weight and then go without food for several weeks. Amin and others say the dragons are hungry partly because of a 1994 policy that prohibits villagers from feeding them.

"We used to give them the bones and skin of deer," said the fisherman.

Villagers recently sought permission to feed wild boar to the Komodos several times a year, but park officials say that won't happen.

"If we let people feed them, they will just get lazy and lose their ability to hunt," said Jeri Imansyah, another reptile expert. "One day, that will kill them. "

The attack that first put villagers on alert occurred two years ago, when 8-year-old Mansyur was mauled to death while defecating in the bushes behind his wooden hut.

People have since asked for a 6-foot-high (2-meter) concrete wall to be built around their villages, but that idea, too, has been rejected. The head of the park, Tamen Sitorus, said: "It's a strange request. You can't build a fence like that inside a national park!"

Residents have made a makeshift barrier out of trees and broken branches, but they complain it's too easy for the animals to break through.

"We're so afraid now," said 11-year-old Riswan, recalling how just a few weeks ago students screamed when they spotted one of the giant lizards in a dusty field behind their school. "We thought it was going to get into our classroom. Eventually we were able to chase it up a hill by throwing rocks and yelling 'Hoohh Hoohh.'"

Then, just two months ago, 31-year-old fisherman Muhamad Anwar was killed when he stepped on a lizard in the grass as he was heading to a field to pick fruit from a sugar tree.

Even park rangers are nervous.

Gone are the days of goofing around with the lizards, poking their tails, hugging their backs and running in front of them, pretending they're being chased, said Muhamad Saleh, who has worked with the animals since 1987.

"Not any more," he says, carrying a 6-foot-long (2-meter) stick wherever he goes for protection. Then, repeating a famous line by Indonesia's most renowned poet, he adds: "I want to live for another thousand of years."

Porcupine, python strut catwalk for Russian zoo

Leggy models shared the catwalk with a porcupine, a python and a yak on Sunday at a fashion show to raise public awareness of animal welfare and Saint Petersburg's zoo.

About a dozen animals in all -- some on leashes, others in the models' arms -- strutted their stuff for the zoo, one of the oldest in Europe but hard-pressed for funds.

"Casting the models was not easy," Tatiana Fedorishenko, the zoo's deputy director, told AFP, referring to the human kind. "The animals in the show are tame, but the models have to be without fear, and comfortable with them."

"It was hard," confided one of the models, Natasha. "My fox was always trying to run away. I had trouble finishing my walk."

The show was the idea of fashion designers in Russia's second city, in solidarity with the 410 species and 2,000 animals at the zoo in Alexander Park that was founded in 1865.

"I'm taking part because of my compassion for animals," said designer Vladislav Aksyonov. "I am flatly opposed to the use of natural fur and I also want to help our zoo." - AFP

Bears 'celebrate' Jewish holiday

Bears at an Israeli zoo are given a festive meal of cheese as part of the celebrations of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.

Normally accustomed to fruit, the bears are instead enjoying blocks of
cheese.

In modern Jewish Israeli custom families gather to eat a dairy-based meal.
And the keepers at the zoo thought the bears should be able to join in with
the celebrations.

SHAI DAVID, ZOO KEEPER, SAYING:
"This is a special breakfast, specially made for Shavuot, the
Jewish holiday. It's basically made of cheese, cream cheese, and fruits as a
custom - just like we do it on this holiday."

Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah by God to the Jewish people on
Mount Sinai, seven weeks after their exodus from slavery in Egypt.

Traditionally, Jewish residents of Israel visit the Western Wall in
Jerusalem's Old City - one of Judaism's holiest sites.

And while it's unlikely the bears will be making any such pilgrimage, they
certainly got into the spirit of the holiday where the food was concerned.

New Zealand zookeeper killed by white tiger

(AFP) - A zookeeper was mauled to death by a white tiger at a New Zealand wildlife park Wednesday in an attack witnessed by horrified tourists, police said.

The male wildlife keeper was attacked by the animal while cleaning an enclosure in Whangarei's Zion Wildlife Gardens in New Zealand's north.

Eight foreign tourists at the park were understood to have seen the mauling, a police spokeswoman added.

"It was very, very frightening," an Auckland man told a Fairfax reporter, without giving his name.

Two keepers had gone into an enclosure containing two white tigers, when one of the animals attacked, the police spokeswoman said.

"Despite the best efforts of the second keeper and a rapid response from other wildlife park staff, the tiger would not let the park worker go and he died at the scene," she said.

The tiger was later destroyed by staff and the wildlife park was closed.

Another employee of the park, which is home to around 40 rare lions and tigers, required surgery after he was attacked in February by a white tiger after it was startled by a pride of lions.

Zion Wildlife Gardens are well known in New Zealand as the home of the Lion Man television series, which followed the work of Craig Busch, who was dismissed from the park controlled by his mother last year.

On Tuesday, Busch claimed in a court hearing over his dismissal that animal care and safety standards had slipped at the park since the breakdown of his relationship with his mother.

"I became very concerned with animal welfare issues," he said. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry documents released to Television New Zealand last year expressed concerns over animals kept in crowded, unsanitary conditions.

Inspectors were at one stage so concerned by conditions at Zion Wildlife Gardens they considered having 40 lions and tigers put down.

I thought such things only happen in Singapore.

Iraq to cull wild boars in Baghdad Zoo to halt flu

Iraq will kill three wild boars in Baghdad Zoo to ward off the new flu sweeping the globe, officials said, despite experts' advice that people are spreading the virus, not pigs.

Dr. Ihsan Jafar, who heads Iraq's committee on what the World Health Organisation calls influenza A (H1N1) but is widely known as swine flu, said on Friday that a request was sent to Baghdad municipality to cull the hogs as soon as possible.

The government of northern Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdistan region said medical teams were checking travellers at airports, especially foreigners coming from countries affected.

"It is also possible the disease could be spread by eating pork, so we banned hunting wild boars," regional health minister Abdul Rahman Osman said. Most Iraqis are Muslim and do not eat pork, but a Christian minority does.

Iraq has registered no cases of the flu, which global health experts say derives from a swine influenza but has not been found in pigs.

In an effort to halt misinformation linking the virus to pigs, the World Health Organisation (WHO) renamed it Influenza A on Thursday. It has consistently said the disease cannot be caught from eating pork if it is prepared properly.

Still, Egypt on Thursday started seizing and slaughtering herds of pigs as precaution against the flu in a campaign the United Nations called a "real mistake".

"We know this virus is spreading by human to human transmission but we can't say 'don't take these secondary measures', which any country in the world would take," Jafar said, defending the planned boar slaughter.

Egypt's culling of 300000 pig inhumane

A LEADING animal rights group criticised Egypt on Monday for using 'shocking and cruel' methods to slaughter the country's pigs over swine flu fears, responding to a YouTube video that showed men skewering squealing piglets with large kitchen knives and hitting others with crowbars.

The controversy was the latest swirling around Egypt's decision to kill all the country's 300,000 pigs out of concerns they will spread swine flu. But the World Health Organisation has said it is entirely unnecessary because the illness is being spread through humans.

The government decision also brought accusations that Muslims are attacking minority Christians, who breed the animals. Most Muslims consider pigs unclean and do not eat pork.

The Egyptian government has denied the claims and subsequently expanded its rationale for the slaughter to confront a long-standing hygienic problem posed by pigs raised by garbage collectors who live amid the refuse in Cairo slums.

There were also protests within Egypt's parliament. Christian lawmaker Seyada Ilhami Gress expressed anger on Sunday over the 'government's random and inhumane way of slaughtering the pigs'.

Responding to the criticism, Parliament Speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour said the killing should be done in a 'civilised and humane way because animals have rights like human beings'. But he did not specifically comment on the video.

Both Muslim and Christian lawmakers supported the government late last month when it issued its order to kill the country's pigs, even though no swine flu cases have been reported.

The Ministry of Agriculture issued instructions at the time that owners should kill their pigs by piercing their hearts with a needle and then slitting their throats before burying them in pits lined with quicklime. But the video showed that those recommendations were not being heeded.

The head of the Egyptian Society of Animal Friends, Ahmed el-Sherbini, said in a statement published Monday in Al-Dustour newspaper that some of the pigs were being buried alive. The government said it was not aware of the practice.

The World Health Organisation says the H1N1 virus that has sickened more than 8,000 people around the world and killed 76 is being spread by humans, not pigs, and pork products are safe to eat. -- AP

No more Whale Shark after strong oppositions!

A Singapore casino developer said Saturday it was considering alternatives to its plan to exhibit whale sharks, the world's largest fish, which had run into strong opposition from animal welfare groups.

"We have started to explore plans for an alternative to a whale shark exhibit," Krist Boo, the spokeswoman for Resorts World at Sentosa, told AFP.

Resorts World at Sentosa, one of two casino resorts being built in Singapore, had planned to import the whale sharks for its Marine Life Park (MLP) which set to become the world's biggest oceanarium upon completion.

The park however said its move was not due to pressure by the seven animal welfare groups which have launched an online petition that has gathered more than 9,000 signatures.

"The MLP team does not take its responsibilities to both conservation and Singapore lightly and as such, we spent the past two years doing much groundwork," it said in a statement to AFP.

"We strongly believe that our action must be governed by the conservation of this species rather than what is dictated by fleeting public opinion."

Alternative options to the whale shark exhibit being considered by the MLP were shown to the various animal welfare groups last month, it said.

"This proposal is still in the process of being refined for a further round of review," the MLP said.

Any changes to the planned whale shark exhibit would have to get the final approval of the Singapore government.

Animal welfare groups welcomed the move by Resorts World at Sentosa to consider alternatives to exhibiting whale sharks, which can reach lengths of 12 metres (40 feet) or the size of a bus.

"I think it's very progressive in that they are considering other alternatives," said Louis Ng, executive director and founder of the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society group.

Jaki Teo, the campaign coordinator behind the online petition (www.whalesharkpetition.com), hoped the authorities would consider the concerns raised by animal welfare groups about the whale sharks.

"A lot of the concerns are about the fact that they are not suited to be held in captivity," she said.

Resorts World at Sentosa is scheduled to open in phases starting from early 2010 and will feature the world's biggest oceanarium with 700,000 fish.

Orang Utan escape Australia Zoo

An Australian zoo was evacuated Sunday when an orangutan escaped after using a branch to scale an electric fence around her enclosure, zoo officials said.

Adelaide Zoo said patrons were evacuated as a precaution when 27-year-old Karta, described as "extremely intelligent", breached the electric fence on Sunday morning.

Zoo curator Peter Whitehead said Karta got as far as a boundary fence but was still some distance from the public before seeming to realise she was in the wrong place and returning to her enclosure.

Whitehead said although the primate showed no aggression during her 30 minute escapade, she was secured inside her night den before the public were readmitted.

"She was probably secured by the time we got most of the people out of the zoo," he told Sky News.

No More fireflies in Six months?

MALAYSIA: The entire firefly population in Kampung Kuantan and Kampung Bukit Belimbing in Kuala Selangor is facing wipe-out in six months.

"All the fireflies there will be gone for good by the end of this year if no measures are taken to protect them," said Selangor Tourism, Consumer Affairs and Environment Committee chairman Elizabeth Wong.

The Selangor Government had issued a stop-work order for all activities in firefly sanctuaries along Sungai Selangor yesterday, she said.

She said the decline of the firefly colonies in the two popular tourist spots was at a very serious stage, with half of them already disappeared.

"We have identified seven critical areas in the two villages where the firefly colonies in four spots are already gone," she said after the weekly exco meeting here yesterday.

Last month, The Star reported that the days of firefly watching would be over because of land clearing which has damaged the habitat.

Wong said that massive cutting of trees and improper development along the river were the main reasons the fireflies were dying.

Furthermore, some areas along the river bank had been turned into oil palm plantations, she said, adding that there were also factories and restaurants operating too close to the river.

"A total of 38ha of land along the river has also been cleared," she added.

Wong said the fireflies, whose lifespan is only three months, could not survive in such an environment where there was only polluted water.

She also said that there was no river reserve along the river and part of the land had been sold to individuals.

The state government, she said, would gazette the land along the 20km river into a buffer zone.

It had also identified 52 landowners along the river and would take over the land from them as soon as possible, she said.

Wong said that the state government would also start to replant trees such as sagu, berembang, nipah and rembau immediately to rebuild the habitat of the fireflies at the critical areas.

The state government was establishing a fund to get the private and public sectors involved in preserving the firefly sanctuaries.-- The Star

If we continue to let this World bleed, at the end our children will be made to pay for it.

Poor Pigs are killed becos of Swine Flu!

IRAQI authorities have killed three wild boars at Baghdad's zoo because of swine flu fears.

Dr. Sabah Jassim Mozan, head of the Agriculture Ministry's veterinary unit, says the animals were killed on Saturday as a precaution against the spread of swine flu.

But international health experts say the virus is not transmitted by pigs. Iraq has no documented cases of swine flu.

Baghdad municipal spokesman Hakim Abdul Zahra gave no details Sunday on how the boars were killed, saying only it was 'according to veterinary practices.' Iraq has virtually no pig farming because Islam prohibits consumption of pork products. But Egypt, which has a sizable Christian population, has ordered the mass slaughter of pigs. -- AP

Swine Flu outbreak

The swine flu outbreak that has sparked widespread fear — so much so that Egypt has ordered the slaughter of the country's 300,000 pigs, even though no cases have been reported there — is easy to pin on the eponymous animal from which it emerged, but the fact is, the current epidemic is little more than an accident of evolution. If pigs are to blame, so too are birds and humans. (See pictures of thermal scanners hunting for swine flu.)

The problem begins with the wily nature of the influenza virus itself. It may be an uncomplicated thing, made up of nothing more than 10 proteins assembled into a genome that's simple even by microbiological standards, but that bare-bones genome is unusually flexible, with snap-in, snap-out gene segments that allow easy mutation and exchange of information with other viruses. That's the reason we need a new flu vaccine every year: by the time one flu season has ended and the next one begins, the virus has changed so much, it can simply shake off last year's shot. Compare that with, say, polio; the vaccine was perfected in 1955 and hasn't had to change much since.

What keeps the flu relatively in check is that there simply aren't that many species that are susceptible to it — with humans, pigs and certain kinds of birds leading the list. "There are surface markers on the cells of some species that bind with sites on the flu virus," says Dr. Peter Daszak, an emerging-disease ecologist and president of the Wildlife Trust. "The influenza virus evolved along with pigs, and it did the same with a few other mammals and with birds." (Read "To Travel or Not to Travel? A Swine Flu Dilemma.")

The adaptability of the virus, however, made it a certainty that a strain that evolved in one of the susceptible species would easily make whatever changes were necessary to allow it to survive in one of the few other eligible hosts. So quickly and efficiently does the virus transform itself that it may require just a single passage through a single individual to get that shape-shifting job done. "Different viruses from different sources enter a cell, and the virus that comes out the other end is an entirely different one," says Dr. Richard Webby, an infectious-disease specialist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis and the director of the hospital's World Health Organization collaborating center. "The process is called reassortment."

Birds are the natural reservoirs of the common flu strains that strike in winter — and those strains reassort themselves to hit humans particularly hard. But while humans are not susceptible to every strain of avian flu, pigs definitely are. When bird flu viruses replicate in pigs, they pick up the viral machinery that gives more selective flu strains the power to spread to other mammals, like us. That's what makes pigs such potent mixing bowls for flu. The roundabout bird-pig-human route may be less common than the straight bird-human jump, but it may be more problematic. Strains of avian flu, like the much-feared H5N1, can infect individual humans, but they can't make the person-to-person leap. Avian flu that is passed through the pig's mammalian system, however, can be passed readily among humans. (Read "Why Border Controls Can't Keep Out the Flu Virus.")

All of this made the flu virus a tenacious foe from the outset, but once humans invented farming and learned to cultivate animals, we made a bad situation much worse. All at once, chickens, ducks and pigs — which never had much to do with one another — began living cheek to jowl in high numbers and often unsanitary conditions. Farm families and people working in live markets then began mingling with the critters. That's a pathogenic speed blender, and the viruses have taken full advantage of it. "It's really an ecological issue," says Daszak.

So if we can't fairly blame the pigs (indeed, the CDC has officially stopped calling the virus "swine flu," opting instead for the more hog-friendly 2009 H1N1 flu), can we blame Mexico? That charge doesn't stick either. Decades ago, numerous countries came together to develop the Global Influenza Surveillance Network (GISN), which allows epidemiological teams to spot new flu viruses as soon as they emerge and get vaccines ready in time. But the GISN only tracks human flu, meaning animal flu can slip by undetected. What's more, pigs that carry influenza tend not to die en masse the way flocks of birds do, eliminating the immediate tip-off that a serious pathogen is at large. None of that is Mexico's fault either. In fact, since human tourists and domesticated animals cross into Mexico all the time, there's every reason to believe that the progenitor virus behind the epidemic hitched a ride in one of them.

"I'm of the opinion that this doesn't have to be a Mexico-originated virus," says Daszak. "Somehow it got to Mexico and then mixed with humans."

If we have to pin the rap somewhere then, forget any one species or country and blame simple biology. But regardless of whence the virus came, the more salient question is, Where will it go? That's what concerns doctors as they work to stem the epidemic and make sure healthy people stay that way.

China's Pandas

China has moved the last batch of pandas still living in a world-famous preserve badly damaged in last year's devastating earthquake to a nearby facility, state television reported Sunday.

CCTV said in a news broadcast the six pandas were moved on Saturday from the Wolong Panda Breeding Center, near Sichuan's capital of Chengdu, to another breeding facility in the same province.

The pandas were shown playing in a wooden house and chewing on bamboo shoots after being transported in metal cages and released into a new enclosure in the Bifengxia Giant Panda Base in the town of Ya'an.

The Wolong preserve was nearly destroyed in the May 12 earthquake, which sent boulders the size of cars crashing onto it and killed at least one panda. The quake left 90,000 people dead or missing.

Most of the 63 pandas living there have since been relocated to zoos around the country. The Wolong preserve had been the heart of China's effort to use captive breeding and artificial insemination to save giant pandas, which are revered as an unofficial national mascot.

Earlier this month, state media said China will begin building a new panda breeding center in May to replace Wolong.

Only about 1,600 pandas live in the wild, mostly in Sichuan. An additional 180 have been bred in captivity, many of them at Wolong, and scores have been loaned or given to zoos abroad, with the revenues helping fund conservation programs.

Stray dogs kill zoo animals in western Russia

A pack of stray dogs has mauled a reindeer and a mountain goat to death at a zoo in Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, a zoo spokeswoman said on Thursday.
"Dogs got through the zoo fence - it has several holes, made by people who wanted free entry to the zoo, so it was not an obstacle for them," she said.

The dogs also attacked and bit several other animals.

"Six deer and two Cameroonian goats are currently being treated by vets, they are in the state of stress," the source said.

Malaysia seizes smuggled cobras, tortoises

Malaysian authorities seized 814 tortoises and 160 king cobras as they were being smuggled out of the country on its northern border, according to a report.

Customs officials told state news agency Bernama the wildlife was found in the back of a truck in northern Perlis state as it was clearing border formalities before entering Thailand.

State customs director Mohammad Isa Endot said the reptiles were found under 2,300 kilogrammes of garlic used to help disguise the smell of the illicit cargo.

He said the truck driver, a Thai national, was detained after failing to produce any documents for the export of the wildlife, Bernama reported.

Mohammad Isa said the tortoises and snakes had been handed over to the Wildlife and National Parks Department.

Wildlife is often smuggled out of Malaysia and into kitchens abroad.

Last month, authorities seized the butchered remains of dozens of civet cats, long-tailed monkeys and wild boar destined for sale in neighbouring countries.

Baby ring-tailed lemur at the Singapore Zoo

One of the Singapore Zoo's latest residents, this ring-tailed lemur, born on April 09. It's just one of many endangered species born at the zoo as part of its wildlife conservation program.

In addition to this ring-tailed baby, the zoo recently welcomed a baby red ruffled lemur. Both species are endangered, in large part due to deforestation in their native Madagascar.

Woman survives polar bear mauling at Berlin Zoo

Zoo keepers saved the life of a German woman who jumped into a polar bear enclosure at Berlin Zoo by pushing away of one of the animals when it attacked her.

The keepers' bravery was praised after they dragged the 32-year-old out of a moat for the animals. They had to shove the animal out of the way after one of four polar bears dived into the water and attacked her, inflicting serious bites to her legs and arms.

Knut, the zoo's baby bear that became an international celebrity in 2007 after it was hand-reared by a keeper, was in the enclosure at the time. Germany went polar bear crazy after the birth of the cute animal.

Police did not say why the woman jumped into the enclosure. She had to climb over a fence, a line of prickly hedges and a wall to get in.

She suffered serious injuries after being bitten on her arms and legs.

Last December a man who afterwards said he was "lonely" survived jumping into the same zoo enclosure when keepers diverted the bears with chunks of beef.

"The woman has proved herself to be careless by jumping into the enclosure," a police spokesman said afterwards. "Logic tells us that polar bears will do this type of thing in this situation."

Visit to the Singapore Zoo

Right, we went to the Zoo, again! This time, as proud members of the Zoo. Just received the membership card a few days ago. The Singapore Zoo will be the place where we frequently visit for the next few months, since it's only about 10 min drive away from our house, and Hao Re loves seeing the animals!

But today was not a good day for us also. As soon as we finished our breakfast at the Ah Meng Coffee Shop in front of the zoo, it started to rain drizzle. We were not bothered by the drizzle and continued our exploration. Hao Re was sitting in his stroller with a small hood to shed off the rain. Me and hubby walked under the drizzle, kind of romantic, huh!

But to be honest, though it's only drizzling, it did spolit our mood. So didn't see much, it was feeding time for the many different types of monkey, so we just watched that. It's actually nice to see so many different types of beautiful monkeys, as for the past 2 trips, when we were trying to search for the monkeys, they were all hiding, can see none of them. Only during the feeding time, they all showed up.

After that, went to have a drink at the restaurant, then decided to head home. As soon as we were about to leave the zoo, the rain stopped. Duh! Oh well, didn't bother to turn back, we can always come the other times. So it's bye-bye to all the animals, after spent about 1 hour there.

The theme park's "cage of death" that drops tourists into a crocodile's lair

Without the cage you wouldn' t stand a chance swimming with a massive saltwater crocodile.

Is Singapore A boring place?

(Here is the answer from my Ang Mo Friend) I think the answer to " whether singapore is a fun or boring place " depends on individual.

If you hail from a place where it is cold all year round for example, it maybe totally different experience.

if you like shopping , there are quite a number of choices
from the big malls like takashimaya, paragon, wisma atrium and isetan (all along the Orchard road shopping belt) to small individual stores in Far east shopping center, lucky plaza. Of cos there are Bugis Village (where u get similar things that u find in Far East plaza but at a slightly lower price) Marina square and city hall and citylink underground shopping . if you are going off the normal tourist belt , u can try Queensway shopping center(the prices of the sports shoes here are usually lower.

Then after all the shopping , you can drop by the Botanical garden for a nice dinner. jus off orchard . near tanglin road. There are 2 restaurant and a food court there. I will recommend Halia (malay for ginger) restaurant which is cheaper than Au Jardin but better than the food court if you want a cosy ambience.

If you have a few more days , you can go to the Singapore Zoo/Night safari or bird of cos i don't recommend that you go to both. I personally like the night safari, Firstly because its cooler at night , you can take the train instead of walking and you can see the animals in a different setting. Of cos some people complain that they cant see the animals because its too dark. You can also have your dinner on the train in the night safari. of cos there are other cheaper alternatives in the park.

If you yearn more for the night life where the other wild things are. you can head down to clarke quay or robertson quay. Attica, zouk, longbar, one fullerton etc depending on your taste.

now , if you like to see more of the local scene, you can go to little india in serangoon, geylang (redlight district) and chinatown. Little india gets crowded during week end with all the foreign labours on their off days, you get to "excite" all your senses. Smell, sight and noise. Geylang , not the official malay village which the tourist board want you to go, but go to the red light district. Lorong 1 to maybe 16. I am not promoting prostituition here, but i guess its a eye opener for some. Its quite safe to walk around there but of cos take precaution especially if you are a lady. in case some one mistake you for being one of the workers theres. Jus look and dont disturb the ladies unless you want their minders to come after you. its also a place for food . Jus look and try

Then there is chinatown, "nothing much" here but you can go for a body masage in pearl center or people's park center. But beware of the sleazy one. there are also shop selling "Chinese" products. Yue hwa will be good for traditional items

Beach wise if you like to rollerblade , you can try east coast park, if you like beach volley ball or jus sun tanning , its better to go sentosa. YOu can hang around some of the beach bars there. Cafe del mar etc. blades and balls can be loaned from the premises there.

lastly there is one more place. bukit timah nature resrve. u can jus trek thro the hill. ( nothing too difficult ) , But i recommend those keen for a thrill ride to go there on a weekend. I know of a operator there lending out mountain bike for you to ride thro the trail. Must loan the helmet for safety. Its not a difficult trail but you will need enough skill and confidence. Try not to go on a rainy day, the trail will be wet.

thats all for the day

Endangered Lemur Babies Born at Singapore Zoo

Singapore Zoo saw the births of the little-known and critically endangered red ruffed lemur.

"We're ecstatic with the arrival of this red ruffed lemur as it is our first such birth at the park," said Biswajit Guha, assistant director of zoology at the zoo.

"This means that there will now be one more addition to the breeding pool of this critically endangered species."

Although it is not known how many red ruffed lemurs now exist in the wild, its numbers are declining due to deforestation, hunting and the pet trade.

Red ruffed lemurs are one of the biggest primates native to the African island of Madagascar.

They have soft red and black fur and eat a diet comprised 75 per cent of fruit.

RARE orange-haired monkey

A rare orange-haired monkey has made her debut at a zoo – after being rejected by her mum.

Elka, a Francois Langur monkey, is being hand-raised by staff who showed her off at Taronga Zoo in Sydney.

Elka's birth five days ago was a surprise to zoo keepers who weren't sure mum, Saigon, was even pregnant.

Staff will now look for a new temporary home for the orange-haired leaf-eating monkey because she's all alone.

Elka's parents have black fur but it is thought the infant's orange colour helps parents to spot them in the wild.

Senior primate keeper Mandy Mclellan said: "Primates are quite an intelligent group of animals, a lot of their social development depends on learning.

"Often first time mums might not have have enough exposure to other females giving birth so they haven't learned social skills and haven't learned what they need to do with these little babies."

Keepers will raise Elka, feeding her baby formula every three hours, and prepare her for eventual reintroduction to her parents.

Her species is very rare in the wild and under great pressure from loss of habitat and poachers.

It is thought there could be as few as 1,000 left in Vietnam and China.

Taronga's life sciences general manager, Cameron Kerr, said: "Taronga's keepers were prepared and are managing the difficult process of hand-raising the langur...as the species faces real risk of extinction in the wild."

2 Komodo dragons kill man in eastern Indonesia

Two Komodo dragons mauled a fruit-picker to death in eastern Indonesia, police and witnesses said Tuesday, the latest in a string of attacks on humans by the world's largest lizard species.

Police Sgt. Kosmas Jalang said 31-year-old Muhamad Anwar was attacked on Komodo, one of four islands where the giant reptile is found in the wild, minutes after he fell out of a sugar-apple tree on Monday.

He was bleeding badly from bites to his hands, body, legs and neck after two lizards, waiting below, attacked him, according to a neighbor, Theresia Tawa. He died at a clinic on the neighboring island of Flores soon after.

Attacks on humans by Komodo dragons _ said to number at less than 4,000 in the wild _ are rare, but seem to have increased in recent years.

An 8-year-old boy was killed in 2007 _ the first recorded deadly attack on a human by one of the endangered lizards in three decades. A park ranger narrowly survived after one of the animals entered his hut last month and started biting his hands and legs.

There have been several other attacks in recent months, according to Metro TV.

The reptiles, which can grow up to 10 feet long (three meters) and weigh as much as 150 pounds (70 kilograms), have shark-like serrated teeth and a bite that can be deadly. Its saliva contains roughly 50 different known bacteria strains, so infection is a risk.

Komodos can be found in the wild on the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Padar and Rinca. Tiny numbers also can be found on Flores.

Papaua New Guinea forests reveal 56 new species

Scientists said Wednesday they have uncovered 56 new species in the teaming virgin tropical forests of Papua New Guinea including jumping spiders and a tiny chirping frog.

The 2008 two-month expedition by British, Canadian and PNG scientists to the Pacific islands found a wealth of treasures and documented some 600 species, said Conservation International (CI) which organized the trip.

Among them were 50 spider species, two plants, three frogs and an elegant striped gecko which are believed to completely new to science.

"The vast Kaijende Uplands and nearby valleys represent one of Papua New Guinea's largest undeveloped highlands wilderness areas, and all of it is under the tenure of local clan landowners. These forests are essential to their traditional lifestyles," said CI scientist Steve Richards, who led the expedition.

The three new frogs include a tiny brown one with a sharp chirping call, a bright green tree frog with enormous eyes and a torrent-dwelling frog that has a loud ringing call.

Much of PNG's forests remain unexplored, and have been kept in pristine condition thanks to the care of the local tribes who inhabit them.

"Their intimate knowledge of and stewardship over a large tract of this vast upland wilderness has led to conservation of their wildlife and environment," said Bruce Beehler from Conservation International.

The tribes rely on the wilderness for hunting as well as gathering forest products, and the region provides fresh drinking water to thousands of people living in the Enga Southern Highlands as well as Western and Saudaun provinces.

The group, based in Arlington, Virginia, also highlighted that the vast forested wilderness played a critical role in helping slow climate change as it sucks in large amounts of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Since 1990, Conservation International, which is a private organization, has led more than 60 expeditions to different parts of the globe, discovering more than 700 new species.

The 'painful' guide to visiting S'pore

Thinking of taking a holiday in Singapore but fear there won't be enough suffering?

Well, worry no more. (Unless, of course, you happen to enjoy worrying, in which case you can worry all you want. Whatever floats your boat. I'm not here to judge.)

We will be the first to admit that Singapore has long neglected your specific demographic. In the past, the country had very little to offer people like you who demand a certain amount of pain and suffering on their vacations.

You will be glad to know that much has changed. In recent months, numerous existing attractions have been retrofitted to cater to your specific tastes. We did a detailed study and invested some effort into this project and I am sure you will like what you see.

Where we could not have the attraction to directly inflict pain on you, we inflicted pain on the attraction so that you can be reminded of pain.

We have spared no expense for the sake of your displeasure.

While we cannot list all of the different attractions here, we've picked just a few painful highlights.

Enjoy, or rather, don't enjoy your stay!

Shopping

Do you find that your shopping experience lacks pushing, shoving and people ramming into you with trolleys loaded with television sets?

Want a shopping trip where you can get good bargains and yet at the same time be exposed to risk of death by suffocation?

Then you absolutely cannot miss one of Singapore's IT fairs.

At every fair, nearly the entire male population crams into a few convention centre floors and proceeds to buy flatscreen TVs like they (the TVs, not the men) are curry puffs.

IT vendor: Hello uncle, would you like to buy a TV? There's a promotion.

Man: Sure, I'll take five. And don't call me uncle.

If you think crowds are painful, wait till you try a crowd where every other person is pushing a trolley with a giant TV in it.

You may never want to go back to normal shopping again.

Eating

Singapore has long been known for its great dining experiences. It is known for having good food at clean hawker centres at very reasonable prices.

Understandably, you masochistic tourists stayed away.

However, thanks to the innovative efforts of one seafood stall at Newton Hawker Centre, Singapore now has a dining experience it is proud to offer to visitors like you.

You will still get a taste of Singapore food but with the added satisfaction of feeling completely ripped off at the end.

Enjoy the thrill of being presented with a gigantic bill at the end of your meal. A single tiger prawn can cost as much as $30. A meal for six will cost more than that TV set you got rammed with at the IT fair.

For a little added bonus, try querying the bill. Then just sit back and soak in some fear as some burly men appear to persuade you to pay.

When you finally cave in and pay up, make sure you don't pay with exact change, then watch helplessly as the stall owner who presented you with the large bill thinks you want to give him a tip.

It's this sort of dining experience that prompted one masochist to say: 'Die, die must try'.

Water sports

After you've done all the shopping and eating, how about some outdoor activity to burn off those calories?

For you the masochist, we offer an exciting water rescue that combines physical pain of injury with the emotional pain of feeling unappreciated.

The day starts with a stroll along the Singapore River near the Merlion. If you are lucky, someone who cannot swim will fall into the water. You then dive into the water to perform a heroic rescue.

In the process, you are likely to suffer scrapes and bruises bad enough to warrant a trip to hospital.

Sounds good so far? It gets better.

Not only are you wet and injured for doing a good thing, you will also be out of pocket to the tune of $90. Yes, as a special treat for tourists like you, you will be made to pay your hospital bill.

During the trip, be sure to have your picture taken with the Merlion statue.

It became an iconic symbol for pain after a lightning strike left a large hole in its head.

Amazing views

After all that excitement, it's time to wind down with a relaxing ride on the world's largest observation wheel, the Singapore Flyer. Such wheels may be commonplace these days, but none offers the kind of torture we do.

As with the water rescue, timing is crucial here. While the wheel will operate normally most times (it has to cater to normal tourists too), it will occasionally break down.

When it does, you can look forward to up to six hours stuck in a small enclosed capsule at over 100m in the air.

This is especially recommended for claustrophobic masochists who fear heights.

For the ultimate experience though, make sure to drink a lot of water just before you get on and don't take any plastic bags with you.

Somewhere around the third hour, you'll be a big hit with the rest of the passengers.

These are but a few of the many wonderful experiences just waiting to be enjoyed. And we're coming up with new ways to hurt you all the time.

So what are you waiting for? Contact your travel agent today.

jeremyau@sph.com.sg

Zoo doubles its rare reptiles

A zoo in Indonesia is welcoming the arrival of 32 newborn Komodo dragons.

Agus Pangkat, of Surabaya Zoo, said the endangered lizards – thought to number less than 4,000 in the wild – hatched in the last two weeks. Fourteen eggs were still under observation.

The giant reptiles have been kept at the zoo since the early 1980s, but the new arrivals have swelled the population from 34 to 66. It has been their most successful breeding year there.

Komodo dragons can grow up to t10ft long and weigh up to 37 stones. Their bite can be deadly.

Chimp 'planned attack on zoo visitors

Scientists claim to have uncovered evidence which shows how chimpanzees plan for the future.

A study published in Current Biology observed the actions of a male chimpanzee at a zoo and recorded how he collected stones and fashioned concrete discs which he would later throw at visitors.

Mathias Osvath, from Lund University, said the observations convincingly show how apes consider the future in "a very complex way".

"It implies that they have a highly developed consciousness, including life-like mental simulations of potential events," he said.

"They most probably have an 'inner world' like we have when reviewing past episodes of our lives or thinking of days to come. When wild chimps collect stones or go out to war, they probably plan this in advance. I would guess that they plan much of their everyday behaviour."

The scientists claim their study shows how chimps don't simply react to immediate circumstances with a "current drive state", highlighting how the chimp was in a calm state when collecting the stones compared to the agitated state he was in when throwing the items at visitors.

Mr Osvath also says he thinks wild chimps, in general, probably have the planning ability demonstrated by the individual in captivity.

"I think that wild chimpanzees might be even better at planning as they probably rely on it for their daily survival," he added.

"The environment in a zoo is far less complex than in a forest. Zoo chimps never have to encounter the dangers in the forest or live through periods of scarce food. Planning would prove its value in 'real life' much more than in a zoo."

Drug arrests at Singapore Zoo

Serious Stuff!

THE Singapore zoo cancelled performances after police said on Wednesday they had arrested ten Malaysian workers and three Singaporeans on suspicion of involvement in drug trafficking.

Three Malaysians were intercepted in their taxi at a border crossing between the two countries on Sunday carrying a variety of drugs including cannabis, ketamine and 'ice", a concentrated form of methamphetamine, officers said.

This led to the arrest of three Singaporeans at Singapore Zoo's car park and another seven Malaysians at their dormitories in the complex, a spokeswoman from the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) said.

One Malaysian and one Singaporean have been charged with drug importation and trafficking and face a minimum sentence of five years' jail and five strokes of the cane if convicted, she said.

Some of the suspects were part of a performance troupe that entertained visitors to the zoo's Night Safari section with mock tribal dances and fire-breathing stunts.

The show, popular among foreign tourists, has been 'suspended until further notice' as a result of the arrests, the attraction's website says.

Drug trafficking is punishable by hanging in Singapore if the amounts carried by a suspect exceed certain limits specified by law. -- AFP

Wedding at Singapore Zoo

Weddings aren't everyday affairs. They come by once in a lifetime and merit the undivided attention of a national event. From the bridal bouquet to the menu, everything ought to be nothing less than perfect. And yet, when it comes to the venue, it's always the same old boring set of addresses. If your love for each other truly knows no bounds, neither should the venue for your wedding celebrations.

Address:
The Singapore Zoo
80 Mandai Lake Road,
Singapore 729826
Tel: (65) 6269 3411
www.zoo.com.sg

Tel: (65) 6360 8500/560

Spending millions to attract millions?

Cable cars may replace free buses on Sentosa

ZIPPING around Sentosa Island will be made easier from 2011 with the launch of a new cable car service.

The new transport link may replace the present free intra-island bus service.

The above-ground system is part of Sentosa Leisure Group's (SLG) over $250 million plan to overhaul the transport system on the island to ensure that it can handle the crowds when Resorts World at Sentosa opens next year.

Currently, Sentosa receives up to 30,000 visitors daily during the peak season. But that number is expected to rise to over 100,000 people daily with the opening of Singapore's second integrated resort.

Mr Lee Chin Chuan, director of SLG's property business development, said the cable car system will offer a greener way of travel compared to the current diesel-powered bus fleet.

The new cableway system will be at most six to seven storeys tall, a third of the height of the current cable car system which runs from Mount Faber.

It is expected to take anything from 1,400 to 5,000 passengers per hour in one direction, moving at speeds of 4m to 6m a second. It will also offer express waiting times of 12 seconds to 15 seconds instead of two minutes to three minutes for the monorail and 10 minutes to 15 minutes for the bus.

Currently, four stations have been earmarked. Mr Lee did not discount the possibility of rolling out the system to the rest of the island or even to the mainland.

The cost of the project is not known yet. SLG has hired consultants to help determine the system's capacity and cost.

One other unknown: whether visitors will be charged for rides. SLG is still mulling over this.

The group is also exploring other possibilities like electric trams, mini railways and buggies. Plans to boost links to the island include an $80 million, 710m-long second bridge, being built by the casino-resort and expected to be ready by the third quarter of this year.

SLG has invested $25 million to build a new depot extension and to buy two cars to raise the capacity of the monorail from 3,000 to 4,000 passengers per hour.

It is also building a new boardwalk so pedestrians can walk to the resort island. Construction of the walkway is slated to begin in the second half of this year. It will have travellators like those in the airport to ease the 620m walk.

Teacher Chai Jiamin, 27, welcomed the new moves. She used to play beach volleyball at Sentosa regularly, but said that on weekends, traffic congestion can get really bad.

However, other regulars like 26-year-old Benjamin Lau, who runs his own IT business, said replacing the free buses with a paid cable car will not benefit visitors.

He said: 'I don't think it's practical to invest in a cable car system when there are already free bus and trams serving Sentosa.'

SLG's Mr Lee added that another key reason that is driving Sentosa's search for new modes of transport is to minimise the system's emissions and carbon footprint.

Welcome to Singapore.

Join NTUC - Good Deals

NTUC Members' Promotion
Jurong BirdPark, Night Safari and Singapore Zoo
NTUC U card promotion:-
- 30% off Jurong BirdPark, Night Safari, Singapore Zoo admission
- While stocks last
- Exclusive to NTUC members only
- Present NTUC member card upon purchase at
NTUC Customer Service Centre
- Limited to 5 admission tickets per card
- Not inclusive of tram ride
- Non exchangable for cash or other goods and services
- Only available at NTUC Customer Service Centre, One Marina Boulevard, #B1-01

Singapore Zoo – The World’s Best Rainforest Zoo
Singapore Zoo is known to have among the most beautiful settings in the world, where 2,530 animals roam freely in open, natural habitats covering 28 hectares.

The most recognised resident is the orang utan, and Jungle Breakfast with Wildlife is a unique encounter where diners experience first hand the wonder of being so close to these wonderful creatures.
Themed exhibits such as Fragile Forest, Hamadryas Baboons – the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia and Elephants of Asia, and interactive edu-taining animal presentations will enthrall all to learn about and appreciate wildlife.

What’s more, splashes of exhilarating activities await at Rainforest Kidzworld. Get set for waves of fun at the water play, zip along on a cableway or help groom our miniature horses! To end your day, take a quick cruise on our boat to enjoy a scenic view of the Upper Seletar Reservoir.

Sumatran tigers kills, whose fault is it? HUmans?

A STRING of attacks by rare Sumatran tigers has left six people dead in Indonesia in less than a month, including three mauled by the critically endangered cats this weekend, conservationists said on Monday.

A father and son - illegal loggers sleeping near a pile of wood - were killed as they slept Saturday in protected forest on Sumatra island. Another man in the same area was attacked just after dusk Sunday, said Didy Wurdjanto of the state conservation agency.

The other victims were killed in late January, also in Sungai Gelam, a district 600km from the capital, Jakarta, but those tiger attacks all occurred near to villages.

The Sumatran tiger is the world's most critically endangered tiger subspecies.

Only about 250 of the cats are left in the wild, the Forestry Ministry said, compared to about 1,000 in the 1970s. The tigers' diminishing population is largely blamed on poaching and the destruction of their forest habitat for palm oil and wood pulp plantations.

In some cases the animals roam into villages or plantations in search of food, setting the stage for a conflict with humans.

Rangers and conservationists were rushing to the scene of the latest attacks to investigate.

But since the animal - or animals - had not strayed from its habitat no efforts would be made to catch and relocate the cat, said Wurdjanto.

'This time it was the loggers' fault,' he said, adding that the tigress believed responsible for last month's maulings has been captured and is being taken to a national park.

About 40 people have been killed by tigers on Sumatra between 2000-2004, according to the state conservation agency, which said the trend has continued since then. New figures will be released in April. -- AP

CopyCat Zoo Malaysia!

Is selling the singapore brand 'nation brand perception' a way to go? Teaching others, sharing experiences, consultation, Providing the Singapore Solution. Knowledge sharing, but is Singapore selling himself out? In the long run what will be our uniqueness and sell point.

M'sian zoo to follow S'pore's open concept
Mon, Feb 16, 2009
The New Straits Times
By Sean Augustin and Nurul Mardiana Abdul Alim

KEMAMAN, TERENGGANU: There are great expectations of the Kemaman zoo, touted to be the largest on the east coast, which is due to open by the end of next month.

Located on a 54-ha site in Bukit Takal, bordering the popular firefly colony in Kampung Yak Yah, it will house animals of about 100 species, including bears, seladang (Malayan gaur), kijang (barking deer), wild goats, orang- utan, crocodiles and tigers.

These animals are among the 100 species to be featured at the new zoo in Bukit Takal, Kemaman, which is due to open at the end of next month. [NST pictures by Aswadi Alias]

Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents Terengganu Chapter Committee member and tour operator Alex Lee said the opening of the zoo would bode well for the tourism industry here.

This is because it will help shift the focus of the industry to Kemaman since most of the popular sites in the state are located up north, he added.

"I hope the zoo will also serve as a rehabilitation and conservation centre. This will attract more visitors."

Lee hoped there would be efficient management and promotion of the place. He also hoped it would have an open zoo concept like in Singapore as tourists tend to skip zoos that caged up animals.

Malaysian Nature Society Terengganu chairman Wan Adnan Ismail said he also preferred the open zoo concept.

He hoped the zoo would be popular for being a well-managed animal kingdom instead of being the biggest.

"It has to be attractive. We don't want people leaving the zoo feeling sorry for the animals."

Restaurant operator, Latifah Mohd Razi, hopes the zoo will help boost business here with the high number of tourists expected.

Nazariah Mustafa, 33, who operates a sundry shop in Jalan Saga, said: "I hope the infrastructure, especially the road, will also be upgraded."

Animals' Rights

Love them!

NTU Animal Lovers’ Society is a society run by matriculated students of NTU and students of National Institute of Education who are animal lovers. It was started off by Miss Fong Kam Ling in April 2007. With the help from some other passionate animal lovers, the club is officially approved by NTU Student Affairs Office in July 2007.

The objective of the club is as following:

Providing educational resources and fun to all animal lovers and disseminating information to promote the knowledge and interest of animals.
To raise awareness of animal’s rights and protection, as well as to save and improve lives of animals.
As we believe that spreading love and care for animals should be through joint efforts with other organizations, NTU Animal Lovers’ Society also works with official institutions and other non-governmental organizations.

Some of the activities which we will be organizing include the animal adoption project, voluntary work at animal shelters, field outings and expeditions and organizing animal carnival in NTU, such as Animal Rights Awareness week.

Main Committee Members
President: Elaine Lee Xiao Yin
Email: elxyin@hotmail.com

Vice President: How Bi Ee
Email: fireworks_bi@hotmail.com

Honorary General Secretary: Terence Woon
Email: neomaverickx@hotmail.com

Honorary Treasurer: Saw Vee-Liem
Email: veefessional@hotmail.com

Animal Welfare Officer: Valerie Cheah
Email: angel_bluez16@hotmail.com

Event Managers: Yeow Wan Ching & Jamie Chia
Email: snoopyger88@hotmail.com &a1_rocks@hotmail.com

Business Manager: Lim Sitong
Email: lim.sitong@gmail.com

Logistics Officer: Low Kar Perng
Email: cutekidlowkp@hotmail.com

Publicity & Publication Officer: Nguyen Truong Tho
Email: thont@live.com

External Liaison Officer: Goh Beng Kim
Email: beng_kim86@hotmail.com

Millions of animals dead in Australia fires

Kangaroo corpses lay scattered by the roadsides while wombats that survived the wildfire's onslaught emerged from their underground burrows to find blackened earth and nothing to eat.

Wildlife rescue officials on Wednesday worked frantically to help the animals that made it through Australia's worst-ever wildfires but they said millions of animals likely perished in the inferno.

Scores of kangaroos have been found around roads, where they were overwhelmed by flames and smoke while attempting to flee, said Jon Rowdon, president of the rescue group Wildlife Victoria.

Kangaroos that survived are suffering from burned feet, a result of their territorial behavior. After escaping the initial flames, the creatures — which prefer to stay in one area — likely circled back to their homes, singeing their feet on the smoldering ground.

"It's just horrific," said Neil Morgan, president of the Statewide Wildlife Rescue Emergency Service in Victoria, the state where the raging fires were still burning. "It's disaster all around for humans and animals as well."

Some wombats that hid in their burrows managed to survive the blazes, but those that are not rescued face a slow and certain death as they emerge to find their food supply gone, said Pat O'Brien, president of the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia.

The official human death toll stood at 181 from the weekend's deadly fires and authorities said it would exceed 200. While the scope of the wildlife devastation was still unclear, it was likely to be enormous, Rowdon said.

"There's no doubt across that scale of landscape and given the intensity of the fires, millions of animals would have been killed," he said.

Hundreds of burned, stressed and dehydrated animals — including kangaroos, koalas, lizards and birds — have already arrived at shelters across the scorched region. Rescuers have doled out antibiotics, pain relievers and fluids to the critters in a bid to keep them comfortable, but some of the severely injured were euthanized to spare any more suffering.

"We've got a wallaby joey at the moment that has crispy fried ears because he stuck his head out of his mum's pouch and lost all his whiskers and cooked up his nose," Rowdon said. "They're the ones your hearts really go out to."

In some of the hardest-hit areas, rescuers used vaporizing tents to help creatures whose lungs were burned by the searing heat and smoke.

One furry survivor has emerged a star: a koala, nicknamed "Sam" by her rescuers, was found moving gingerly on scorched paws by a fire patrol on Sunday. Firefighter David Tree offered the animal a bottle of water, which she eagerly accepted, holding Tree's hand as he poured water into her mouth — a moment captured in a photograph seen around the world.

"You all right, buddy?" Tree asks in a video of the encounter as he approaches the koala. Later, as Sam thirstily gulps from the bottle, he quips: "How much can a koala bear?"

Often mistakenly called koala bears because they resemble a child's teddy bear, the marsupial is actually a rather grumpy creature with a loud growl and sharp claws.

Sam is being treated at the Mountain Ash Wildlife Shelter in Rawson, 100 miles (170 kilometers) east of Melbourne, where she has attracted the attention of a male koala, nicknamed "Bob," manager Coleen Wood said. The two have been inseparable, with Bob keeping a protective watch over his new friend, she said.

Meanwhile, workers at the shelter were scrambling to salve the wounds of possums, kangaroos, lizards — "everything and anything," Wood said.

"We had a turtle come through that was just about melted — still alive," Wood said. "The whole thing was just fused together — it was just horrendous. It just goes to show how intense (the fire) was in the area."

The animals arriving appear stressed, but generally seem to understand the veterinarians are trying to help them, Wood said. Kangaroos and koalas are widespread in Australia and are not particularly afraid of humans.

Volunteers from the animal welfare group Victorian Advocates for Animals filled 10 giant bins with 2,300 dead grey-headed flying foxes that succumbed to heat stroke Saturday, said Lawrence Pope, the group's president. Volunteers tried to save some of the bats by giving them fluids and keeping them cool, Pope said, but the creatures were simply too stressed and perished.

"It's heartbreaking," Pope said. "They're very endearing animals and to see them die right before our eyes is something that wildlife rescuers and carers just find appalling."

POOR animals!

Singapore gets NEW animal attraction

SINGAPORE will get another top-drawer tourist attraction in 2011, when a $140 million river safari theme park will be completed.
To be carved out of the same 89-hectare Mandai area which houses the Zoo and Night Safari, the park, the first of its kind in Asia, will have some new species of wildlife, boat rides and special displays of freshwater habitats.

Few other details were released yesterday - the park has not even been named yet - but it is understood that some of the 4,000 animals in the Zoo and Night Safari's collection, mostly aquatic animals like manatees and fish, will be moved there.

Successful river theme parks elsewhere, such as Florida's Silver Springs Nature Theme Park, give visitors the chance to view marine life through cruises on glass-bottomed boats, as well as animal exhibits and fun rides.

Yesterday, Ms Fanny Lai, the group chief executive officer of Wildlife Reserves, which will run the new park in addition to the Zoo and Night Safari, said the attraction will give visitors a chance to get up close and personal with the animals. This will help create a 'greater awareness of freshwater habitat conservation', she said.

She added that the company began working on the idea of a new park two years ago, and that it is now an 'opportune time' to embark on it.

Though Singapore is now grappling with a drop in tourism as economies the world over reel from the effects of a recession, observers expect things to pick up by the time the new park is ready in 2011.

The river safari will make Mandai, already a must-visit destination for tourists and Singaporeans alike, even more popular: The Zoo and Night Safari pulled in 1.6 million and 1.1 million visitors, respectively, last year.

The new park is expected to draw at least 750,000 more, said Wildlife Reserves Singapore, the operator of all three attractions.

Tourism players and Singaporeans alike were excited by the prospect of a new park.

Royal Plaza on Scotts' general manager Patrick Fiat said: 'The more, the merrier. These new attractions will allow tourists to spend more time here, or come again because they didn't manage to visit something the first time round.'

Added taxi driver Ng Seng Nguan, 52: 'It will cater to different people and give more variety, which is more interesting.'

Visit Singapore Today.

Come, come, visit Singapore, Don't shy

STB gives tourism industry a $90 million BOOST

Singaporeans and visitors can look forward to better deals from the tourism industry in the year ahead, with the Singapore Tourism Board set to inject 90 million dollars into the sector.

Recognising the tough times ahead, a new initiative known as BOOST will focus on positioning Singapore as an affordable business and leisure destination.

Revealing more details at a media conference today, STB said it'd be launching a year-long marketing branding campaign called "2009 Reasons to enjoy Singapore".

Discounted airfare and packages for visitors will be available to promote Singapore as a short-haul destination.

To help companies alleviate their business costs, STB will enhance its current assistance schemes and funding support.

Tour guide and travel agent licence fees will be waived this year.

There are about 1,800 tour guides and 800 travel agents in Singapore.

And targeting the business community, conventions and exhibitions will receive additional funding support of up to 70 percent for event hosting fee.

Strengthening the capability of the sector is another key thrust of BOOST, and emphasis will be placed on helping companies upgrade their employees' skills.

Singapore residents too, stand to benefit from the BOOST programme.

As a start, free entry at selected attractions will be offered, as well as GST-free shopping at participating retail outlets.

When asked to sum up the sentiment of the tourism industry currently, STB Chief Executive Aw Kah Peng said that industry players were cautious, but optimistic.

"I mean nobody is suggesting that it is easy. So I think they are realistic. But we also sense that there is a lot of energy, as well as optimism. Because clearly, if you are talking to the people who are opening new hotels and building new ones, they're doing it for a reason, because there's going to be growth. So I must say that people understand the current situation. But that has not dampened their longer term outlook."

STB forecasts that the number of tourist arrivals in Singapore is expected to fall to between 9 million and 9.5 million this year, down from 10.1 million last year.

Total tourism receipts generated are also expected to fall to a range of 12 to 12.5 billion dollars this year a drop from the 14.8 billion dollars generated in 2008.

Boy feared snatched by crocodile

SYDNEY - A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy is feared to have been snatched by a crocodile in floodwaters in northern Australia while walking with his dog on Sunday, police said.

'The boy was walking with his seven-year-old brother earlier this morning when he followed his dog into floodwaters,' police said in a statement.

'He disappeared in the water and his brother saw a large crocodile in the vicinity of his disappearance.' A large-scale search for the boy has been launched at Cape Tribulation in far north Queensland.

Police were also searching for two people missing after their car was washed away as they tried to drive through floodwaters south of Tully in Queensland.

Much of the state has been declared a disaster zone, with an area of more than a million square kilometres and 3,000 homes affected by floods due to torrential rains.

Hundreds of people were forced to evacuate and others have been stranded in their homes.

Rain continued to fall on the saturated state on Sunday, easing in the worst-hit north but threatening to flood areas that have so far escaped the monsoonal downpours.

'Tomorrow, the monsoon trough continues its movements south and the bulk of the rain will head down towards Rockhampton,' a weather bureau spokesman said.

'We can expect local flooding to occur as that rain moves south.' While the north of eastern Australia has been swamped, the south has faced scorching heat and deadly wildfires.

The death toll from bushfires raging through Victoria state soared to 35 Sunday and was set to mount in a disaster Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described as 'hell in all its fury.' Most of those killed were caught up in an inferno northwest of Melbourne, where entire townships had been razed in the firestorm, which continued to burn out of control on Sunday. -- AFP

Huge snake fossil found!

Stunned scientists have found the fossilised remains of the world's greatest snake -- a record-busting serpent that was as long as a bus and snacked on crocodiles.

The boa-like behemoth ruled the tropical rainforests of what is now Colombia some 60 million years ago, at a time when the world was far hotter than now, they report in a study released on Wednesday.

The size of the snake's vertebrae suggest the beast weighed some 1.135 tonnes, in a range of 730 kilos (1,600 pounds) to 2.03 tonnes.

And it measured 13 metres (42.7 feet) from nose to tail, in a range of 10.64-15 metres (34.6-48.75 feet), they estimate.

"Truly enormous snakes really spark people's imagination, but reality has exceeded the fantasies of Hollywood," said Jonathan Block, a vertebrate palaeontologist at the University of Florida, who co-led the work.

"The snake that tried to eat Jennifer Lopez in the movie 'Anaconda' is not as big as the one we found."

"At its greatest width, the snake would have come up to about your hips," said David Polly, a geologist at the University of Indiana at Bloomington.

The investigators found the remains of the new species at an unlikely location -- at one of the world's biggest open-cast coalmines, in Cerrejon, Colombia, where giant machines had obligingly gnawed away surface layers of dirt.

Working as huge coal-laden trucks thundered by, the team sifted through the earth, laying bare the remains of supersized snakes and their likely prey -- extinct species of crocodiles and giant turtles -- and evidence that a massive rainforest once covered the ground.

"The giant Colombian snake is a truly exciting discovery. For years, herpetologists have argued about just how big snakes can get, with debatable estimates of the max somewhere less than 40 feet" (12.3 metres), said leading snake expert Harry Greene of Cornell University, New York.

Titanoboa cerrejonensis -- whose Latin name honours the coal mine -- is not only a source of jaw-dropping wonder.

It is also a useful indicator as to the world's climate after the dinosaurs were wiped out some 65 million years ago, the team say.

Unlike mammals, reptiles cannot regulate their own temperature.

As a result, they are limited in body size by the ambient temperature of where they live. For example, reptiles today are bigger in the tropics than they are in cooler latitudes.

Based on T. cerrejonensis, the scientists calculate that the mean annual temperature in equatorial South America 60 million years ago would have been 30-34 degrees Celsius, or 86-93 degrees Fahrenheit.

That makes it around 3-4 C (5.5-7.2 F) hotter than tropical rainforests today.

If so, this is a welcome piece of news about climate change.

Simulations about global warming suggest that, on present trends, the world's surface temperatures could rise by between 1.8-4.0 C (3.2-7.2 F) by 2100.

If the supersnakes are a guide, tropical rain forests could still exist at such temperatures, although a fast, massive rise in warming could well be devastating to many species.

The paper is published by the British-based weekly science journal Nature.

The world's longest snake today is the Asian reticulated python, specimens of which can grow around 10 metres (32.5 feet), and the biggest in terms of mass is the green anaconda, with some specimens weighing 227 kilos (550 pounds).

Stolen tortoise case

Owner of 10 stolen exotic tortoises worth almost $75,000 have got seven of them back - but the man who returned them is now assisting the police with their investigations.

According to the owners of the Live Turtle and Tortoise Museum at the Chinese Garden in Jurong, he resembles one of the two thieves caught on closed-circuit television (CCTV) making off with the reptiles.

The Indian Star Tortoises and highly endangered Radiated Tortoises were stolen on Saturday night.

Should animals be caged? Protection or Depriving freedom

20 January 2009

Straits Times
Forum

Dear Sir/Madam,

Pity the dolphins caught from the wild

I REFER to the article, 'Senator cites Mexico's sad experience with dolphins' (Jan 12), which reported that Mexican senator Jorge Legorreta Ordorica had written to National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan last month to relate Mexico's experience - 12 out of 28 dolphins Mexico had imported from the Solomon Islands in 2003 had died from illnesses, ranging from a muscle disorder to pneumonia.

Mr Ordorica urged Mr Mah to consider the disturbing mortality rate of the animals when evaluating import applications for such animals.

It had been reported previously that seven bottlenose dolphins, part of a group of 18 destined for Resorts World Sentosa, were taken from the wild in the Solomon Islands.
Although Singapore reportedly thanked Mr Ordorica for his letter, and has stated that the dolphins here will require Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) import and export permits, this in no way addresses or eliminates the stress, suffering and health risks these creatures
have been subjected to and will endure in the whole process.

Marine Life Park has said its dolphin enclosure will more than meet the minimum space requirements for the dolphins, but in an era where corporate social responsibility is emphasised in relation to environmental concerns, it will not reflect well on Singapore's image and may also cause a dent in its reputation.
The act of taking these animals from the wild (endangered or not) is at odds with the letter and spirit of Singapore's Wild Animals & Birds Act, which prohibits the taking of an animal from the wild.

The list of injustices throughout the dolphins' ordeal is extensive and heart-rending to those in animal welfare:

- Removing them from their natural habitat involves loss of their freedom and natural behaviour;

- Being subjected to long holding periods before their arrival in Singapore;

- Having to endure a stressful journey involving handling and transport; and

- Forcing them to adapt to an alternative lifestyle in a man-made structure, to be tamed and trained for human benefit and enjoyment.

The SPCA wrote recently to Resorts World Sentosa to object to the import of these dolphins caught from the wild and asked for a review and reversal of its decision.

Kudos to cargo air services company UPS, which reportedly refused to ship the dolphins from the Philippines to Singapore because 'the practice violated its environmental principles'.

Yes, people must be educated to appreciate marine life, but not at the animals' expense.

Deirdre Moss (Ms)
Executive Officer
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Jobs available at Singapore Zoo

Part Time Receptionist at Singapore Zoo

Responsibilities:

Operates the telephone switchboard
Handles incoming calls and attends to general telephone enquiries
Forward email enquiries/feedback to the appropriate departments
Attends to visitors
Handles all incoming and outgoing mails and couriers
Requirements:

Min GCE “A” Level
Relevant working experience will be an advantage
Good communications skill
Pleasant, cheerful with good telephone etiquette
Computer literate
Able to work on weekends and PH
If you have an affinity to work with nature or in a wildlife environment, please send in your detailed resume to:

Human Resources Department
Singapore Zoological Gardens
80 Mandai Lake Road Singapore 729826
Email: recruit@zoo.com.sg

Visit Ah Meng Restaurant

Singapore, January 13, 2009 - The Singapore Zoo wanted to remember her but a sculpture of her wasn't enough.

So it decided to open two new eateries named after its longtime resident and icon Ah Meng the orang utan who died of old age last year. Called Ah Meng Restaurant and Ah Meng Kopi, the zoo hope it will help keep the memory of is best-known resident alive.

But already, there's an Ah Meng Cafe, operating since 1994, in Orchard Plaza in Orchard Road, catering to locals and tourists.

But the good-natured owner, Michael Tan, 65, a fan of the orang utan, would not be taking action against the zoo for using Ah Meng's name.

He said: "I registered my cafe's name but the zoo has the right to use the same name. But I'm not going to sue them or insist that they change the name," he told SoShiok.com

"I named my restaurant Ah Meng Cafe as Ah Meng is a famous Singapore icon. I kept a photo of Ah Meng having breakfast with Bernard Harrison before. I felt sad when Ah Meng died last year, and I did think of giving up the business. And also partly because I'm old and my children are not interested in the business," Mr Tan added.

His mission in opening the restaurant, which has sidewalk seating, was to help rescue the old street food of Singapore from vanishing. He was in showbiz in his younger days but was influenced by the F & B trade at his performing venues.

In fact, Mr Tan, also nicknamed as "Ah Meng" by regular patrons, has also earned international fame. His cafe, which offers local dishes, seafood and BBQ dishes, is shown in a video to passengers on SIA flights arriving in Singapore.

"SIA has done a good job by introducing foreigners to our cafe," said hardworking Mr Tan whose cafe is open from 11am till as late as 3am if there are still customers at that time.

The Peranakan man declared: "Every dish is authentic. Fish head curry, chilli crab, char siew rice, laksa, hor fun, curry chicken, satay, chicken rice and nasi lemak....Our chicken rice is popular. I learnt cooking before starting this restaurant but today I don't cook as much as my assistants can do those dishes very well."

Singapore Zoo lost its famous icon Ah Meng (left) when she died last year. Zookeeper Sam (seen here with her) was heartbroken.

Ah Meng eateries at the zoo

Singapore food is also the focus of the zoo's Ah Meng Kopi while its Ah Meng Restaurant has both local and western dishes.

Ah Meng Restaurant, located inside the zoo, offers chicken rice, dim sum, otak otak, chwee kuay, vegetarian and chicken briyani (pretty good), alongside western items like spaghetti, sandwiches, salad, hotdogs, fish & chips and cheesecake.

There are also 'Ah Meng flavoured' Durian Puffs...erm...you gotta go there to try them yourself. Don't try to prise our lips, we're not revealing more. Anyway, don't we all know that Ah Meng loved durians?

Located at the zoo's entrance, Ah Meng Kopi offers 'kopitiam' favourites like tea, coffee and dishes like mee siam and mee rebus.

Naming two restaurants after Ah Meng is not inappropriate as she was the star of countless "Breakfast with Ah Meng" events with visitors from all over the world including well-known celebrities.

So check out the new Ah Meng eateries soon and don't forget to say Hello to her - Ah Meng's resting place is by the water's edge of the lake.

And if you're in Orchard Road, drop in at Ah Meng Cafe at Orchard Plaza before Michael calls it a day.

Ah Meng Restaurant
Ah Meng Kopi
Singapore Zoo
80 Mandai Lake Road
Singapore 729826

Ah Meng Cafe (not related to the zoo)
150 Orchard Road
#01-35 Orchard Plaza
Singapore 238841
Tel: 67373611/ 67343611
Email: sales@ahmengcafe.com

Poor, abused workers at Singapore Zoo

Following our report on Sun City superviser's abuse of staff...

MOM, zoo act to protect workers

It Started with one brave soul and a fuzzy handphone video.

When a whistle blower contacted The New Paper last November, a week after zoo worker Nordin Montong was killed at the white tiger enclosure, a one-minute-long video was all he had.

It showed a worker from Sun City Maintenance, the same maintenance company Mr Nordin(the man who jump into white tigers' den) worked for, being verbally abused and beaten up by his supervisor in front of a crowd of onlookers.

The informant claimed that Sun City workers were also overworked and underpaid.

One month after The New Paper's report on the video, Sun City is now under investigation by the Manpower Ministry (MOM) for overworking its workers and making unauthorised salary deductions.

In the meantime, the zoo's parent company, Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), has announced a slew of measures to protect Sun City workers.

Among the measures are dormitory inspections by WRS staff, making background checks on future sub-contractors and introducing compliance with employment laws as a condition in their contracts with sub-contractors.

Said Ms Fanny Lai, group chief executive officer of WRS: 'The video incident brought our awareness to a greater height... that workers, whether local or foreign, must be treated fairly. This is an issue very dear to my heart and I want to make sure that we walk the talk.'

Ms Lai was speaking to The New Paper on the sidelines of a thank-you brunch for the media, held at the Jurong Bird Park last week, where WRS also unveiled its revamped waterfall aviary.

Ms Lai said that when the allegations of worker abuse came to light, an internal investigation was immediately carried out.

WRS also brought up the issue to MOM and sought advice from the Singapore Manual and Mercantile Workers' Union.

'Our HR people checked the living conditions of the Sun City workers and we had a few discussions with them,' said Ms Lai.

She declined to elaborate on what was discussed at the meetings but subsequently, WRS issued a warning letter to Sun City, stating that a repeat of the incident may result in the termination of its contract.

But the question remained. Why didn't alarm bells go off earlier?

The handphone video, originally taken last August by a Sun City worker who witnessed the beating, was passed to Sun City workers and WRS employees soon after.

'The video was circulating widely. Even the upper management at WRS saw the video a few weeks after the incident but they ignored it,' claimed the whistle-blower who wanted to be known only as Lawrence.

On hindsight, could the feedback channels at WRS have been improved?

Ms Lai agreed with the need for open feedback channels but added: 'We don't want to go back and ask (our staff), did you have the video, who gave it to you, when did you receive it, and so on and so forth. I focus more on the energy to move forward and how we can prevent a repeat of this incident.'

'Isolated'

It was an 'isolated' incident, she said, and one that WRS regrets took place.

But she also emphasised: 'The incident happened outside the zoo, at the carpark which is outside the work area of the zoo, and after office hours when the workers were waiting for the company bus to take them home.

'It was really not within our purview to intervene at that point in time.'

For Lawrence, however, the incident was less an isolated incident and more a 'tipping point' of the ill-treatment Sun City workers had been enduring silently for a long time.

The question of how much WRS knew about the allegations - and whether it should have acted earlier - might rest on the identity of a mystery man involved in the incident.

Towards the end of the video, a man wearing a yellow polo shirt and carrying a walkie-talkie on his belt was seen intervening and ordering the Sun City supervisor to stop the assault. After the situation was defused, he took out his walkie-talkie and spoke into it.

Who was this man? Night safari staff wear yellow shirts as part of their uniform, but they are not the only ones with walkie-talkies: Sun City supervisors use them too.

But Lawrence insisted that he is '101 per cent certain' the man is a manager from the Night Safari's operations department. He provided us his name.

'Even my colleagues agreed that it was him when they saw the pictures in the report,' he said.

Ms Lai, however, maintained that everyone involved was from Sun City. She said that WRS staff were informed about the incident afterwards but were 'not aware of its extent'.

She also said that WRS was unaware of Sun City's tainted record.

Checks with MOM had showed that Sun City was fined last October for overworking its workers and depriving them of annual leave.

What's most important now, she said, is to find a practical way forward.

Ms Lai said: 'Instead of going into the details, what I can say is that the whole incident happened within the contractors. But when people have committed a mistake, I think we should try to let it go. The most important thing is to move on, to have a better tomorrow.'

A happy worker will help the animals to be happy to.

Please Visit Singapore - We need you, our Tourist, Friends

Singapore's tourism sector fell short of its 2008 targets for visitor arrivals and revenue.

In a statement, the Singapore Tourism Board said that the industry had been hit by a dramatic slowdown in the second half of this year.

The tourism receipts grew by five percent over 2007, generating a record 14.8 billion dollars.

But this was still below the official target of 15.5 billion dollars.

Singapore also welcomed an estimated 10 million visitors in 2008, a decline of two percent against the previous year.

Visitors from Indonesia, China, Australia, India and Malaysia accounted for about half of total arrivals.

Average room rates based on data from January to November rose 23.5 percent over the same period in 2007, and total hotel room revenue climbed by about 14 percent.

But the average occupancy rate fell by almost six percent points to 82 percent.

In the statement, STB's Chief Executive, Aw Kah Peng said that Singapore's tourism turned in a credible and robust performance in 2008 despite the dramatic turn in the global economy in the second half of the year.

To help the sector through the tough times expected this year, STB is developing a global marketing campaign to drive visitorship to Singapore, emphasising on regional markets.

SINGAPORE ZOO AND NIGHT SAFARI OFFER VENUE FOR INAUGURAL SAFARI ZOO RUN ON FEB 7, 2009

Singapore Zoo and Night Safari are opening its doors for runners, joggers and walkers for the first time ever on February 7, 2009 at the inaugural Safari Zoo Run. The run is organised by Pink Apple Pte Ltd and part of the proceeds will go towards the care of endangered animals at Night Safari and Singapore Zoo. The inaugural Safari Zoo Run is a non-competitive run open to members of the public. It is non-competitive so that parents, families and children can participate in this event to bond and spend time, and also to encourage a healthy lifestyle through walks, jogs or runs.

“Singapore Zoo and Night Safari are located on 68 hectares of lush greenery overlooking the Upper Seletar Reservoir, and participants will be soaking in the beauty of nature during their jogs. We are pleased to offer our venues for families and individuals to enjoy the wonders of the parks in a different way. As Ah Meng was Singapore Zoo’s icon, we are glad that the run will not only remember her but will aid in conservation causes,” said Ms Fanny Lai, Group CEO, Wildlife Reserves Singapore.

Spanning a 6.2 km route that traverse the tram route across both parks, the run will begin at the coach bay area between Night Safari and Singapore Zoo covering the 3.2 km run at Night Safari before continuing with the Singapore Zoo route. Participation is open across all ages and is not segmented into categories. With an expected turnout of approximately 6,000 participants, both parks have in place multiple first aid and water points. With the flag-off at 4 pm, runners will have the luxury to complete the run by 5 pm for Night Safari and by 6 pm for Singapore Zoo. As the Safari Zoo Run is a non-competitive run, a lucky draw will be held at the end of the run. Three participants whose numbers are called will walk away with 42-inch TV, a video camera and a home entertainment set in the order the number is called, respectively. Registration Details: Registration is now open. As health and safety is a concern, participants below 21 years old will need to obtain parental or guardian consent. The indemnity form can be downloaded from Safari Zoo Run website below. Registration fee for adult (13 years and above) is at S$38 and for child (3-12 years) is S$18. The entry pack will come with an exclusive Safari Zoo Run number tag, exclusive Singapore Zoo polo T-shirt, goody bag with sponsored items, free 3 years PAssion membership card and 50% discount on admission fee to the park on same day visit for friends and family of participants*, and many more.

For more information on rules and regulations, prospective participants can log on to http://www.safarizoorun.com.sg

140 year old lobster freed by restaurant

NEW YORK – A 140-year-old lobster once destined for a dinner plate received the gift of life Friday from a Park Avenue seafood restaurant.

George, the 20-pound supercentenarian crustacean, was freed by City Crab and Seafood in New York City.

"We applaud the folks at City Crab and Seafood for their compassionate decision to allow this noble old-timer to live out his days in freedom and peace," said Ingrid E. Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA spokesman Michael McGraw said the group asked City Crab to return George to the Atlantic Ocean after a diner saw him at the restaurant, where steamed Maine lobster sells for $27 per pound. George had been caught off Newfoundland, Canada and lived in the tank for about 10 days before his release.

Some scientists estimate lobsters can live to be more than 100 years old. PETA and the restaurant guessed George's age at about 140, using a rule of thumb based on the creature's weight.

He was to be released Saturday near Kennebunkport, Maine, in an area where lobster trapping is forbidden.

More Gifts from China dies in Hong Kong

One of Hong Kong's famed attractions, Ocean Park, is battling a public relations nightmare. Over the weekend, it announced that a rare sturgeon from mainland China had died in its care – the third reported death in six months.

Experts said the rare fish suffered from a head injury and blood clotting.

Ocean Park has been transitioning the sturgeons from freshwater to saltwater, and initial investigations showed that it was possible the fish might not have adapted well.

Just three weeks earlier, a sturgeon had died from an infection and yet another died in June after being bitten by a barracuda.

The fish were a gift from mainland China to mark the Olympics and their deaths are seen as a diplomatic embarrassment for Hong Kong. To make matters worse, two of the remaining seven sturgeons are sick.

The sturgeons are deemed as one of China's national treasures and are often referred to as "living fossils".

The popular sturgeon aquarium in Ocean Park has been closed indefinitely. The park has also been grappling with bad press from two other animal capers in which a panda and a sea lion had attacked staff members.

A video has been posted on YouTube showing the aftermath of a panda attack on a keeper in November. The panda, whose name ironically translates to 'peace', bit his female keeper in the leg and she had to be hospitalised.

A few weeks later, a sea lion also bit a trainer in the arm during a public feeding demonstration.

This latest string of animal mishaps has been a public relations disaster for Ocean Park.

Board members have called for an investigation into whether or not there are any management or operational problems behind the incidents. - AP