Wildlife Reserves Singapore reveals new branding for River Safari

A rebranding of Wildlife Reserves Singapore has seen its popular River Safari renamed as River Wonders, while the new bird park in the attraction’s upcoming Mandai precinct will be named Bird Paradise.

With the Mandai Wildlife Group replacing Wildlife Reserves Singapore as the corporate entity overseeing both zoological park operations and the ongoing construction of the Mandai precinct, five parks in the Mandai Wildlife Reserve are now run by the group: The Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, River Wonders, Bird Paradise and the upcoming Rainforest Wild.

The new branding and logos were announced this week with new signs, corporate attire for Mandai Wildlife Group staff, and across its website and social media channels, along with the attraction’s new tagline ‘Come to life’.

Announcing the changes and giving an update on the Bird Paradise development, Mandai Wildlife Group Chief Executive, Mike Barclay said that the precinct is expected to be completed by 2024, as earlier announced.

Advising that the group is "bringing together the final construction work" for Bird Paradise despite delays due to COVID-19, Barclay stated “there's generally a tight supply of labour and of equipment, and of all of the finished products that we want to get on site but we're still labouring away, we are making good progress.”

He emphasised that the group will be ramping up its conservation, animal care and sustainability efforts with its conservation arm, Mandai Nature, and Mandai Global - which will drive expansion into new business areas in areas like ecotourism, ‘edutainment’ and green technology.

Explaining that the group supports about 40 projects around Singapore and South east Asia, Barclay added “the primary pillars that they focus on is how we can go about protecting threatened species, how we can protect and restore the ecosystems they live in and how we can also engage and support the local communities so that they fully support the conservation work that we're doing.

"We also want to explore, with Mandai Nature, how nature-based solutions can play a bigger role in the future in regional conservation ... this will be a major thrust for us moving forward."

Apart from the new developments, existing parks will be refreshed with a new amphitheatre at the Night Safari and a revamped Kidzworld at the Singapore Zoo. The amphitheatre is expected next year while Kidzworld will be ready by 2023.

Kidzworld will have a ‘world-leading’ petting zoo and the zoo will expand on the use of digital and virtual content for new ‘phygital’ activities that blend both physical and digital experiences.

Barclay went on to say “we do face a real global crisis right now with the loss of wild habitats, and the reduction in biodiversity ... and this must be reversed. So, this new branding ... will be a great catalyst for us (and) everyone in Mandai Wildlife Group will redouble our efforts to work towards a more sustainable future."

Images: Mandai Wildlife Group's new Night Safari branding (top) and an artist's illustration of the new Rainforest Kidzworld (below). Credit: Mandai Wildlife Group.