Wildlife Reserves Singapore has just launched their new “My Animal Buddy”, a programme that aims to engage and enable every child to have a personal connection with the animals in Singapore’s four wildlife parks!
Free Animal Buddy programme lets kids form friendships with zoo’s animals
My Animal Buddy’s free-to-subscribe programme gives exclusive opportunities for children to interact virtually with the animals, animal care experts such as zookeepers, wildlife nutritionists and vets and learn about close to 1,000 animal species.
Kids will explore the wildlife parks virtually through digital content, virtual events and “phygital” play. Keepers will bring kids in the Animal Buddy programme behind-the-scenes for an up-close look at the amazing animals in the zoo, including fascinating natural behaviour, enrichment, husbandry, conditioning and more.
As part of being friends with their animal buddies, Children can receive messages from their animal buddies, hang out with them on their live buddy cams and join celebrations at their virtual birthday parties.
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On top of that, children can also explore the animal kingdom through exclusive videos, games and quizzes or learn through imaginative play and virtual live chat sessions. There is also a pipeline of upcoming features such as buddy chatbots and interactive buddy journals and buddy play kits.
Meet the faces of the animal buddy squad
In the lead up to today’s official launch, My Animal Buddy went through several prototypes over the last year. The first My Animal Buddy prototype allowed children to connect with the adorable and friendly rabbits they interacted with at Rainforest Kidzworld’s Buddy Barn, from home as Singapore Zoo’s first Animal Buddies.
The face of the bunnies is enthusiastic food-loving Rudy the rabbit. You can spot Rudy easily by the rings around both his eyes. you can tune in to Buddy Cam from 1.30 pm to 5 pm to try to spot the bunny buddies and their neighbours live!
Subsequently, Californian sealion Pedro, the star of the Zoo’s Splash Safari show was recruited as the second Animal Buddy during his 21st birthday celebration in June 2020. He’s great at holding still for routine X-rays, on condition that he is rewarded with his favourite food of ice and fishes, afterwards.
Bornean orangutan Khansa was unveiled as the latest Animal Buddy during today’s live launch, which was graced by Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, Deputy Chairman of Mandai Park Holdings. Khansa lost her mom when she was one and a half years old. She was subsequently adopted by Sumatran orangutan Chomel and has now settled in with her adoptive family, which includes siblings Bino, Putra and Ah Meng.
Subscribe to My Animal Buddy
To subscribe to My Animal Buddy, visit the website here. In celebration of the launch in conjunction with October being the month of Children’s Day, a spectrum of in-park and online activities is available for families to enjoy. There are also exclusive promotions for the month of October that you can view here.
