Reptile Garden

RepTopia houses under one roof over 60 species of reptiles and amphibians from four geographical zones, a third of which have never been seen here before. During daily keeper demos, glass panels open like windows, giving unimpaired views of the scaly kind. On weekends, our friendly docents will regale you with little-known reptilian facts and stories. Add on multi-species displays, interactive stations and play elements for kids and you’ve got a most ‘snake’-tacular zone!

The exhibit for our collection of the world’s second largest tortoise is inspired by the grasslands of the place of their origin — the Aldabra Atoll off the east coast of Africa. Watch while these ‘walking hills’ lumber about their sandy home and come close enough to examine the scutes on their shells. The wildly-popular feeding sessions happening at 1:15pm daily are said to be a giant treat — for both guests and tortoises!

A naturalistic haven, the Shell’ter offers optimum conditions for our chelonian collection to breed and display their natural behaviour. Each of the seven rock-walled enclosures is a climate-controlled micro-habitat replete with special lighting, heating and humidity control. Through keeper talks and engaging interpretives, you will learn about the world’s most severely threatened tortoises, ongoing efforts to conserve them and actions you can take to protect them.

The centrepiece of this 270m² exhibit is its aquarium-like, sheltered viewing gallery, which can seat up to 70 people. Boasting a bamboo ceiling and a screen of bintangor poles, this is where you can kick back and enjoy an enhanced view of the estuarine crocodiles lurking just beneath the water surface. Mud finishing and aquatic plants help create a riverine habitat not just for the crocs but also the giant Malayan river terrapins and giant snakeheads that share the space.

Accomplished hunters that kill with a combination of brawn and stealth as well as their ‘bite of death’, Komodos are known to cannibalise their own kind. Which is why we house ours in separate enclosures. You’ll typically see them basking on a boulder in their exhibit, which replicates the tropical savannah environment of their native Lesser Sunda Islands. If they’ve retired to the coolness of a burrow, you can view them on a live feed from a closed circuit camera.