Article: Close encounter with wildlife

Monday August 17, 2009

By CLARA CHOOI

WITH a leaf still clenched between its buckteeth, the tiny auburn-haired rabbit stood on its hind legs momentarily to regard us curiously before hopping away.

Not far away, Ruby the racoon, acting the role of the 'Bandit of the Forest', excitedly gambolled about, trying to irritate a cluster of roosting birds.

The birds squawked angrily in protest and Ruby, frightened by their loud chirps, ran off to her corner, tripping over a sleeping Angora bunny in her haste.

The Lost World of Tambun in Ipoh is opening its new attraction, the Petting Zoo, next month.

A few metres away, a large 35kg python calmly watched the sight from across a nearby river, its body coiled into an untidy knot.

This was the scene that greeted us during the recent media preview of the latest attraction in Sunway City Ipoh's Lost World of Tambun (LWOT) — the Petting Zoo.

H-I-S-S: A snake stretching itself in the hands of an animal handler at the Lost World of Tambun's Petting Zoo in Ipoh.

The zoo, which is the first of its kind in Ipoh, will allow LWOT's visitors to appreciate and interact with animals from a closer perspective.

To build the zoo, LWOT converted a 1.6ha plot of its existing premises into a natural habitat for a variety of friendly forest creatures.

Slow and steady: (Below) The tortoises at the zoo's 'tortoise kingdom'

"We built the zoo within the park's natural surroundings without spoiling a single rock or tree.

"Here, both our visitors and the animals can roam freely together, proving that nature and man can live under the same roof," said LWOT general manager Calvin Ho.

As such, the park maintained the natural shape of the existing surroundings and merely fitted in small structures and enclaves for the animals to survive in.

Visitors will feel so close to nature that all they have to do is to reach out and touch it.

A Ruby the racoon gambolling about in the Petting Zoo.

"We did not cut or remove a single piece of limestone or uproot even one tree.

Upcoming new attraction: (above) Workers building the 'rabbit wonderland' enclosure.

"In fact, the place is so natural that when we were building the bird cage, wild birds actually flew in on their own and stayed," said Ho.

The zoo, set to open its doors to the public on Sept 19, features several animal enclosures like the rabbit wonderland, serpentarium, marmoset tree house, tortoise kingdom and special enclosures for deers, possums, porcupines and even prairie dogs.

Visitors will also get the opportunity to interact directly with a variety of animals including more than 18 species of birds, various types of reptiles and even racoons like Ruby.

Ho said the zoo would also feature a "rainforest trail" where visitors could see and even feed wild animals from the forest beyond the park like squirrels, foxes, monkeys, wild boars and others.

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Metro: North 17 August 2009