Watching the Fishing Cat -- one of the most popular animals in the park -- make a splash and catch fish! -- Photos credit and copyright: Night Safari, Singapore Zoological Gardens

 SINGAPORE - It's a walk in the dark and the wild side is just a few feet away.

 One of this tiny nation's best surprises is the world's first and only night zoo.

 When the sun goes down, artificial moonlight takes over. The animals feel at home, the humans go on visual safari.

 So illuminating is this up close and personal expedition that you can literally talk to the beasts.

 Tigers and leopards prowl. Elephants and rhinos munch happily a few feet away. Malaysian tapirs are so near you have to resist a hazardous urge to stroke them. Pythons curl up close by. Giant bats whisper in your ear as they fly by. Otters screech when you make eye contact and hyenas do what they do best, laugh.

 Three walking trails and a tram ride negotiate an area of 40 hectares, where more than 1,200 animals from 110 species walk, run, fly and crawl.

 With more than 90% of animals naturally nocturnal, the night zoo has cleverly conjured up a unique way to see them at their most active.

 So much care was taken with soft lighting for the various pens, trails and open areas that designers purposely ignored any notion that it be bright enough for snapshots. Flash photography, and noise, is unwelcome.

The banded palm civets are one of the smaller animals to be found on the Night Safari's walking trails. -- Photos credit and copyright: Night Safari, Singapore Zoological Gardens

 Keep quiet and the animals hardly notice that they're under surveillance, so much so that some get so close to the tram that a step up would put them on board.

 No wonder the onboard guide repeatedly warns people to keep limbs inside.

 In this case, it is a jungle out there.

 The award winning Night Safari opened in May, 1994, at a cost of around $50 million and visitors can remain inside until midnight.

 One highlight is the jungle canopy itself, with part of a river that leads to the ocean forming the backdrop on one side.

 The light falling on the trees and water is so exquisite that when a giraffe walks by it's reminiscent of the scene in the movie E.T., when the alien and his schoolboy pal fly in front of a full moon on a bicycle.

 Existing vegetation was retained to preserve the character of the forest and an extra 900 trees planted to augment the authentic scene.

 "We cannot sell the animals alone as an attraction," says Bernard Harrison, chief executive of the Singapore Zoological Gardens. "The trees and plants are not simply props, they are part of the cast of the stunning show."

 Some of the trees get top billing of their own.

Catch the active Malayan Tapirs and watch 'em bathe! -- Photos credit and copyright: Night Safari, Singapore Zoological Gardens

 The rare Aquilara tree is so prized by the Chinese for its medicinal value that one scientist from China visited the safari especially to look at them.

 He was just one of the more than one million people a year who visit The Night Safari.

 For tourists, it's a treat to be found nowhere else.

 For locals, it's an idyllic escape from a densely populated metropolis where residents who want to drive bid for the limited licenses available.

 It can cost $50,000 to get a small car on the road.

 It costs $15 to escape into the jungle for a walk on the dark side, where the only sounds are the gasps that take your breath away.

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