Netizens smitten by Singapore Zoo animals celebrating Hari Raya with ketupat feast

Like the rest of their human compatriots, the animals of the Singapore Zoo had to spend their long Hari Raya weekend sheltering in place during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Nonetheless, the celebratory spirit remains very much intact. The critters residing in the zoo’s Fragile Forest took part in festivities on Sunday (May 24) by having a ketupat feast of sorts, which the local Twitterscape found absolutely adorable. 

Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) shared on Instagram Stories how the animals of its tropical rainforest biodome tucked into their meals as they figured out how to unwrap the woven palm leaf pouch of the ketupat. 

Of course, the zookeepers didn’t give them actual ketupat — the Malay rice dumpling delicacy traditionally enjoyed during Hari Raya Aidilfitri. But it’s certainly charming to see the likes of white-faced saki monkeys and golden lion tamarins use their tiny hands digging for food through the packages. 

Wrs/ singapore zoo gave the animals their food through ketupat??? its so cute pic.twitter.com/4Bl8HFB1wh

— ????. ??. ?? (@ddinini) May 24, 2020

The clips are no longer on the WRS Instagram account, but Twitter user @ddinini managed to capture some screengrabs to tweet about. Her Hari Raya tweet has since garnered nearly 3,000 retweets and over 2,600 likes.

WRS paid tribute to this year’s videoconference-filled Hari Raya too by having a black palm cockatoo interface with another cockatoo on screen (it’s just a YouTube video, really). 

[embed]https://www.facebook.com/wrs.sg/videos/2810187679107411[/embed]

ilyas@asiaone.com