Jurong BirdPark, Singapore
by Ali K, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Jurong_Flamingoes1.jpg, and used under GNU Free Documentation License
Jurong BirdPark
Jurong BirdPark, as its name suggests, is a landscaped park on the western slope of Jurong Hill. Jurong BirdPark covers an area of 202,000 square metres. It was the brainchild of Dr Goh Keng Swee, the then Minister for Defence, who got the idea during a visit to the zoological garden in Rio de Janeiro for a World Bank Meeting in 1968. He wanted Jurong to be more than an industrial zone but also a place where Singaporeans can escape from urban life and relax with nature.
Jurong BirdPark opened to the public on 3 January 1971. It was built at a cost of S$3.5 million. Since then it has grown to become the world's largest bird park in terms of the number of birds and second largest in terms of land area. There are 9,000 birds in Jurong BirdPark representing 600 species, of which 29 are endangered species.
A S$10 million makeover in 2006 has now given Jurong BirdPark a new entrance plaza, an African wetlands exhibit, a new restaurant, an ice cream parlour, a gift shop and a bird hospital.
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