Live with our friends ----- Toastmaster Project 2

Towards the end of December, my friends and I visited the Singapore Mandai Zoo. We sure had a wonderful day at the zoo. Frankly speaking, although I am fearful of many of the animals, I like them very much. After all, they are our friends.

It was around noon when we arrived at the zoo since we usually got up late in the morning during the holidays. After a quick lunch we started our trip around the zoo. There were many kinds of animals that I had not seen before, such as the polar bears, penguins, raccoons, giraffe, white rhinoceros, and elephants. I rarely freed my hand from pressing the camera. The Fragile Forest was our first stop. I found the raccoons in it. They were sitting on the tree combing their hair cozily and paid no attention to the focus of cameras. But sometimes they may stare at you curiously just like babies.

Later, we went to watch the elephant show. Elephants are the biggest animals on land today. True enough, I saw how strong they were at the show. They could lift heavy logs of wood easily using their trunks. Therefore, their long trunks come in handy and they play an important role in helping people to carry things from one place to another. Elephants have been our friends for a long time.

Polar bears are what you should visit in the zoo. / In my opinion, polar bears are the highlight of the zoo. The Singapore Zoo has two polar bears at present, the mother polar bear, Sheeba, who is 29 years old and her son, Inuka who just turned 16 on December 26. In fact, Inuka was the first polar bear born in the Singapore Zoo and the tropics. Both mother and son are so lovely whether they are walking, diving, clapping and waving to you. As we all know, it is native to the Arctic. It is well-adapted to its habitat: its thick blubber and fur insulate it against the cold and its translucent fur (which appears white or cream-coloured) camouflages it from its prey. The polar bear hunts well on land, ice, as well as in the water. I found that their fur is not as white as it should be. I think it is because of the differences in its Singapore enclosure as compared to its natural habitat even though the bears have an air-conditioned den and misting fans. Given Singapore’s hot and humid weather all year round, they must be uncomfortable despite being able to survive at temperatures of up to 35 centigrade. As such, the Singapore zoo has decided to move Inuka to a zoo in a temperate climate after Sheeba’s death so that the environment would fit him better.

It is unfortunate that the earth is getting hotter and this poses a threat to the animals living in the Artic region. While average worldwide temperatures have risen 0.6 degree Celsius (one degree Fahrenheit) over the past century, the colder regions like the Arctic have warmed up to a far greater extent. We know that the human activities contribute to global warming. Greenhouses gases – consisting of carbon dioxide, water vapour, methane and nitrous oxide trap heat in the atmosphere and cause climate change. The primary cause is indisputable -combustion of fossil fuels for factories, homes and cars. Deforestation is the second largest cause of global warming.

The Arctic is home to arctic animals like whales, walruses, seals, music oxen and polar bears. Global warming has resulted in these animals being in direct danger due to the melting of ice throughout the Arctic. The melting of ice will particularly impact polar bears and ringed seals as they spend substantial time living and feeding on the ice. We humans have the responsibility to make a change and save them before they disappear from the Arctic.

Animals are our friends. We human beings can not live in the world alone. The world is active with all kinds of beautiful and unique animals. Let’s live with our friends.

PS: This is not my original draft. A friend edited it for me.