RR Duty @ Singapore Zoo 27 May 07 Sunday

RR Duty @ Singapore Zoo 27 May 07 Sunday

Super-crowded day with the SPH Family Day... but I still managed to catch a glimpse of some wild visitors like the oriental magpie robin hovering over the tents of the camping site near the general office. And while the visitors were going gaga over the ambidextrous white-handed gibbons swinging to and fro, I spotted a rather dirty-looking storkbilled Kingfisher perched overhead, seemingly eyeing the fishes in the moat. On better days, the creature is a one of the, if not THE, handsomest of all kf, vermillion mandibles, brilliant hues of yellow and blue as if painted by some generous-with-pastels impressionists.

Really kicked myself for taking out the camera at the last minute....

The King Cobra feeding went on smoothly though, with the large crowd of enthusiastic kids and trigger-happy parents. Ranger again looked quite menacing, good posturing for the crowd but not for Xena, who sensibly did not tussle for the dead mice (used instead of their usual diet of snakes for some fresh protein). Instead, she did not risk antagonising him and went for a dip in the cooling waters with the fly river turtle. The solo turtle earned a mention in our commentary when the crowd was intrigued at why the keeper stepped into the enclosure and hurled a string of veggies into the water, like a fisherman with his bait.

But of course there's no such thing as a vegetarian snake, and in the wild, kings of course deserve to eat other snakes, and even their own kind, in lower ranks...