Opened in 1971 and spanning across 20 hectares (50 acres), Jurong Bird Park (JBP) is a member of the Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) group. Wildlife Reserves Singapore is dedicated to the management of world-leading zoological institutions— the Jurong Bird Park, Night Safari, River Safari and Singapore Zoo—that aim to inspire people to value and conserve biodiversity by providing meaningful and memorable wildlife experiences. A self-funded organization, WRS focuses on protecting biodiversity in Singapore and Southeast Asia through collaborations with like-minded partners, organizations and institutions. Each year, the four attractions welcome 4.6 million visitors.
Jurong Bird Park has a collection of 4000 birds across more than 450 species. Since its inception, JBP has been active in ex-situ management of captive populations through conservation aviculture. Amongst its accolades, it holds the first captive breeding for the black hornbill (Anthracoceros malayanus) in 1995 and the twelve-wired bird-of-paradise (Seleucidis melanoleucus) in 2001. The park has had great success with breeding its vast collection (over 100 species) of psittacines, including key species such as the Pesquet’s parrot (Psittrichas fulgidus), hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus), blue-throated macaw (Ara glaucogularis), red-fronted macaw (Ara rubrogenys), palm cockatoo (Probosciger aterrimus) and blue-eyed cockatoo (Cacatua ophthalmica). The park has a team of 32 dedicated animal care staff, in addition to a modern and fully-equipped avian hospital, with four full-time veterinarians and supporting staff. The park is an active member of a number of regional and international managed breeding programmes, and these include the palm cockatoo (P. aterrimus), rhinoceros hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) and Waldrapp ibis (Geronticus eremita), to name a few. Since 2016, JBP is proud to be a member of both the Spix’s Macaw and Lear’s Macaw Recovery Programmes.
Wildlife Reserves Singapore currently supports more than 25 regional projects. Notable avian conservation projects include:
Establishment of a field station in Palawan, Philippines to improve the conservation management of the critically endangered Philippine cockatoo (Cacatua haematuropygia) in Rasa Island Wildlife Sanctuary. Jurong Bird Park is also engaged with the Katala Foundation in a conservation breeding programme for the species.
The conservation breeding of the critically endangered black-winged myna (Acridotheres melanopterus), Javan green magpies (Cissa thalassina) and other Javan endemics by the Cikananga Conservation Breeding Centre. This includes the reintroduction program aimed at enhancing the wild population, and the post-release monitoring of released birds, reinforced with local community education and awareness programs. Jurong Bird Park has two of the three black-winged myna subspecies in its collection in managed breeding programs.
The conservation management and breeding of the Bali starling (Leucopsar rotschildi) together with the Begawan Foundation. This program aims to identify and secure habitat for future release programs, as well as to carry out local community education and engagement to increase the awareness of the plight of the species. Jurong Bird Park has an assurance colony of this species and has sent captive-bred birds to be released back to the wild.
In 2015, WRS hosted Asia’s first Songbird Crisis Summit in the Bird Park, with the overarching goal of raising awareness and profile of the songbird trade crisis to enhance conservation and enforcement efforts for threatened species of birds. Jurong Bird Park is a member of the Threatened Asian Songbird Alliance and the Bali Starling International Advisory Board, and recently submitted a proposal to the IUCN-SSC to establish an official specialist group. Jurong Bird Park also hosted the first Helmeted Hornbill meeting that saw the up-listing of the species to ‘critically endangered’ on the IUCN red-list, and is a member organization of the Helmeted Hornbill Task Force.