Hello everyone, Shea Sonia is just too lazy to blog and she hired me, a leprechaun called Urukhai to write her journey to Taiping Zoo on a night safari trip. So here goes...
The night safari at the Taiping Zoo will cost you RM20.00 per adult if you are a Malaysian and the parking nearest to the entrance will cost you another RM3.00.
If what you have in mind when the word 'night safari' means driving your own vehicle through the zoo then you're sadly mistaken. But you will still be get driven around in a tram though. You may then choose to walk around the zoo after the guided trip on the tram.
What is interesting about this night safari is that most of the nocturnal animals become active. The temperature at night is normally cooler than at daytime. Which makes it more bearable.
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| Visitors walking around at the entrance |
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| The description of Zoo Taiping |
If you decided to take the tour with the tram fear not of the waiting time. There will be one every 15 minutes and the guide will usually be very strict about queuing up. Which is greatly appreciated if you're surrounded by teenagers and brats who love cutting queue.
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| The tram waiting station |
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| If you're lucky you get to sit next to the driver/guide. |
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| Plenty of seats on the tram carriages |
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| The tram's guided tour routes. You'll need to remember the animal locations if you're planning to walk later. |
From our observation, the animals that are active at night were the bears (these lot love walking on the edge of the concrete near to the fence but uninterested in humans), the foxes (they sound like a mix of hyena and dog. Well that answers the question in that popular song), the black panther (these too love walking near the fence. Being inches away from them and you could hear their breathing is surreal), owls (well, that's a given), giraffes (eating machine), elephants (they were chained and kept in a small corner with electrical fence system), african lions (usually further away from the visitors for safety reason of course but the male lions loud roar is an experience by itself), malayan tigers (they just laze around) and a pair of hippos (they were either eating or hiding in the shadows).
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| The deers eating. You can smell their strong odour. |
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| A non nonchalant deer walking close to the visitors. |
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| A bird perching on a branch. The birds are the only animals free to roam the zoo around it seems. |
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| The bears walking around back and forth for hours. |
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| The foxes were cagey. |
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| And you have the deer feeding on sticks. |
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| The giraffe loves tough and dry branches. |
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| The magnificent black panther. |
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| Rhino. Lazy rhino. |
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| A lonely swan. You don't see them in pairs. |
I'm not sure of the rules in the zoo, but the lighting is minimum, good enough to show the visitors the path they should take. However, if you need to see the animals hidden in the dark you're probably better off bringing your own low power LED torch. I said this based on the zoo's guide action by illuminating these animals with his little LED. The animals seems unperturbed but obviously irks them if you shone towards their eyes directly. If you have the night vision function on a video camera that would certainly help you enjoy the trip immensely!
That's all from me. I hope you find the report useful and enjoy your time at the zoo if you're stopping by in Taiping. Ta!
-Urukhai-
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