7 Dec 2025 - Our First Visit to Rainforest Wild ASIA

We were back at Mandai this morning to visit the newly opened Rainforest Wild ASIA. Officially opened on 12 Mar 2025, the park spans around 13 hectares and is designed as Asia’s first “adventure-based zoological park".  Once we walked out from the car park, an 8-metre-tall Tree of Life stood before us. It adorns animal-themed ornaments representing the threatened species that Mandai Wildlife Reserve protects.

Rather than a typical zoo with cages and fixed exhibits, the park aims to simulate a real Southeast Asian rainforest that let visitors explore different “layers” of the rainforest from forest floor to tree canopy, even down to cave-like subterranean zones.

A major draw of Rainforest Wild Asia is the variety of ways we can traverse it, either by the Elevated Walkways or the Forest Treks. We decided to seek a more immersive and wild-like experience by taking on the various forest treks.

Through the various forest treks, we got to cross logs and boulders, walk over streams, navigate log-bridges and rocky surfaces, and traverse uneven, forest-floor terrain, much like an actual rainforest trek.

At the Karsts, jagged limestone-rock formations rise through the rainforest canopy. Some of the rare primates (e.g. François' langur) inhabit this zone.

Next, we visited Forest Floor with dense vegetation, undergrowth, and habitats for ground-dwelling creatures like the lesser mousedeer, hog deer, tortoises, etc. Walking in this zone gave us a sense of being “in the jungle.”

The Canopy is a treetop rainforest zone.  Here we spotted few canopy-dwelling primates such as Javan Langur, Red-Shanked Douc Langur, and Siamang.

There were a few suspended net walks that gave us an opportunity to feel like we’re swinging through the canopy ourselves.

From 1 – 25 December 2025, visitors like us could embark on an adventure along the Forest Treks in search of hidden Christmas Tokens in exchange for some prizes. We managed to find two such tokens, which got us very excited.

To support this immersive environment, about 7,000 Southeast Asian trees and shrubs were planted to supplement existing protected patches, helping to recreate a more authentic rainforest environment.

The largest zone, Watering Hole, centered around water features with streams, ponds, and water-dependent habitats. Here are some of the iconic rainforest creatures, like the Malayan Tapir and the Malayan Sun Bear, which roamed the forest floor or foraged among the trees.

One disappointment of today's visit was the closure of Cavern zone. Fortunately, we found two Christmas Tokens which we used to redeem some prizes at the park entrance. Guess what, the prizes were admission tickets to Singapore Zoo and River Wonders.