Jurong Bird Park

Jurong Bird Park in Singapore is a wonderful place for up-close-and-personal experience with the animals.  We humans are allowed to walk in aviaries among the birds, and with a little food they come running.  Of course as we walk among the birds the issue of captive animals always comes to mind and I feel some guilt pangs, but at the same time these birds are mostly bred in captivity, and the demonstrations are filled with educational tidbits for those not so environmentally conscious.

And what a surprise to see the penguins.  They stand so still you need to keep your eyes on them till they finally move to prove to yourself that they are in fact real.   You'll need to watch this more than once to convince yourself.

At the show these large toucans, trained by their handlers, swoop low over the audience to land on the trainers and volunteers arms.  We are requested not to stand or stick our hands into the air, for good reason.  For me personally it was a bit of an emotional experience having had a pet crow as kid.

 And so many exotic species.