Featured image courtesy of Mandai Wildlife Group.
As the Year of the Horse gallops closer, Mandai Wildlife Group has set up a variety of auspicious events to ring in the Lunar New Year, with most starting from 17 Feb.
Visitors at the various wildlife parks can get up close with horses, view zebras and tapirs enjoying festive goodies, and even get lucky numbers from an African grey parrot.
Those who enjoy physical keepsakes can even look forward to a limited edition golden coin featuring an intricate horse design.
Image courtesy of Mandai Wildlife Group
Here is a list of the activities and promotions you really don’t want to miss at Mandai Wildlife Reserve.
At KidzWorld in the Singapore Zoo, visitors can enjoy a 20-minute guided session with a pony and falabellas, the smallest horse breed in the world.
Image courtesy of Mandai Wildlife Group
They can gently groom the falabellas and take part in target training activities with the pony.
You’ll scarcely have a better chance to interact with the adorable horses, each with their unique personalities and characteristics.
The events will take place from 15 Feb onwards, on Tuesdays and Sundays, from 10.30am to 10.50am.
Of course, no Year of the Horse celebration at Mandai is complete without the horse’s equine cousin — the zebra.
Grevy’s zebras, the largest species of zebra in the world, roam at the centre of a festive enrichment activity.
This Lunar New Year, they will be snacking on hanging treats — such as carrot ice balls shaped like mandarin oranges — interacting with firecracker-inspired devices, and more.
Image courtesy of Mandai Wildlife Group
On top of that, visitors can keep an eye out for the new three-month-old female zebra foal, one of the many cute baby animals hatched or birthed in Mandai last year.
There are also feeding sessions at S$8 per portion for an even closer encounter with the striped animals.
Alongside most other activities, the enrichment lasts from 17 Feb to 3 March.
From 17 Feb to 3 March, the Bird Paradise will hold a Festive Animal Presentation so visitors can celebrate the Lunar New Year with feathered friends.
Taking place at the Sky Amphitheatre, activities include the park’s vibrant macaws gathering auspicious mandarin oranges.
A sulphur-crested cockatoo will also present a red packet to a lucky guest, in what will likely be your only ever bird-given angpao.
The birds of River Wonders are also getting in on the lucky Lunar New Year business.
At the Boat Plaza, visitors can meet the African grey parrot, now ‘moonlighting’ as a fortune teller as it reveals your lucky numbers for the year.
There’s certainly space in the Year of the Horse for Mandai Wildlife Group’s tapirs. Despite their more pig-like appearance, they are odd-toed ungulates and thus close relatives of equines.
Image courtesy of Mandai Wildlife Group
The Watering Hole in Rainforest Wild Asia features the Malayan tapirs, which are fast and agile swimmers comfortable with the water.
Visitors can watch them interact with their festive Lunar New Year goodies, packed into horse shapes.
River Wonders’ Amazon River Quest will have a similar festive enrichment with its Brazilian tapirs foraging amidst large red packets and lanterns.
For the more night-inclined visitors, the Night Safari has the largest of the odd-toed ungulates in Singapore — the Indian rhino.
They’ll celebrate the Lunar New Year by grazing on treats from red packets.
Everyone knows Singaporeans love limited-edition items, especially for the festive occasion.
If you’re interested, the first 188 visitors every day at each wildlife park and the new indoor playscape, Curiosity Cove, will get an exclusive gold coin. The coin is embossed with this year’s Zodiac animal, the horse.
Image courtesy of Mandai Wildlife Group
There’s also space for a shopping spree at retail stores across Mandai Wildlife Reserve for exclusive Lunar New Year merchandise.
They include tangerine bags, purses, and red packets that can be planted and grown into flowers.
For more information on the various activities, you can visit the Mandai Wildlife Reserve website.
Also read: Cutest baby animals born in Mandai Wildlife Group’s parks in 2025, from serval kittens to manatees
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Featured image courtesy of Mandai Wildlife Group.