My steps at eastern end of Limpapeh Bridge became unstoppable. On Cubadak Bungkuak Hill, I followed paving block lane with yellow diagonal pattern and most of green fences on either side. And then mingle with visitor crowds who are enjoying display of cute animals.
A row of beautiful aves welcomed my first step when entering the zoo which was more than a century old. Producing beautiful sounds in circle of an iron cage was a way for them to entertain visitors.
While rodentia were present on other side. Threat of their thorns had to be held back by a half-body concrete wall in combination with an iron fence above it. They stayed in an artificial tree with holes on several sides.
Proving itself as the most complete zoo in Sumatra, a herd of primates welcomed visitors in middle of area. Some long-tailed monkeys didn’t seem to care about visitor arrival because of their busy eating favorite fruit.
Before entering the most striking spot, there was an elephant with albino-trunk complete with two long tusks which getting around a giant cage to warm its body in morning sun.
Precisely on right of elephant cage, there is a Minangkabau traditional building with three peaks of “gonjong” on both sides and perfected with a main “gonjong” on the porch. roofed with palm fiber, walled with carved wood and have stage floors. Nearly fifty meters long and about twenty meters wide, this Baanjuang Traditional House looks dashing in the center of Kinantan Zoo.
Continuing through to east, a white-walled and green roof musalla appears to mediate the location between Baanjuang Traditional House in the centre and Zoological Museum at the eastern end.
The Zoological Museum itself is green with a Sumatran tiger statue on its roof. To its right, the goldfish-shaped building functions as an aquarium show. The museum which was established in conjunction with a similar museum at Bogor in 1894, has a collection of two thousand species which are preserved and exhibited.
Kinantan Zoo which is officially named Kinantan Wildlife and Culture Park (TMSBK) has had several famous names such as Strompark, Puti Bungsu Park, Bukittinggi Zoo and Fort de Kocksche Dieren Park. Founded by Storm Gravenande, a Dutchman who had served as Assistant Resident of Agam.
Not only all animals which I mentioned above, TMSBK has several other animals such as spotted deer, camels, tigers, orangutans, gibbons, binturung, crocodiles, snakes and many more. It need more time to visit it, so we can enjoy the presence of animals in this zoo.
Please visit here if you are in Bukittinggi.