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span class="caption" style="width: 398px;">Home for the big ones too: A preserved elephant and rhino can be seen at the museum. JP/Apriadi GunawanNurhayati was stunned when she visited Rahmat International Wildlife Museum & Gallery.

She was walking around Asia’s most complete and only museum of wild animals from all over the world.

“It’s fantastic and wonderful. I feel as if I were really in the wild. Although they’re stuffed animals, they all look so alive,” added Nurhayati, a biology student from North Sumatra University (USU). It was her first visit to the museum, located in Medan, North Sumatra. She came with four other USU fellow students, who had never been to the gallery except for Nurul Fadilah.  Nurul, 18, said she hadn’t seen all the animals there during her first visit.

“I was curious to see more rare wildlife,” she told The Jakarta Post at the museum recently.

Some of these unusual creatures included a three-eyed cat, a two-headed sheep, a two-headed buffalo, and four-legged rooster. She said all the wildlife they examined would be very useful for taxonomic identification of animals.

“I’ve learned about some of these animals from books but I had never seen them with my own eyes,” admitted Nurul, pointing at several fowl and mammalian species.
The museum is home to at least 3,000 preserved animals of 1,000 species.

No longer king: Stuffed tigers stand in one of the sections of the Rahmat International Wildlife Museum & Gallery in Medan. The museum features at least 3,000 preserved animals, representing 1,000 species.JP/Apriadi GunawanMost of the wildlife collection has come from various countries including Brazil, China, New Zealand and Australia. Among the animals are Africa’s five most endangered and largest mammals: the elephant, the white rhino, the bull, the lion and the leopard. The “African Big Five” made their way to the museum after they were legally hunted by museum owner and founder Rahmat Shah.

The museum also exhibits large cats and birds from all over of the world, diverse tropical and Antarctic bears, mountain goats and wild sheep, as well as various water animal species. Visitors to the museum have come from all walks of life. They include students, artists, ministers, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Miss Universe beauties, and world leaders including former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Based on the museum’s records, between 6,000 and 7,000 people from different backgrounds visit Rahmat International Wildlife Museum & Gallery each month. The entrance fee is Rp 8,000 for kindergarten and primary school children, Rp 10,000 for junior and senior high school students and Rp 25,000 for adults. Although the museum, which is privately managed by an entrepreneur and world-class professional conservation hunter, was inaugurated more than 10 years ago by minister of education and culture Juwono Sudarsono, it still cannot cover its daily operational costs.

But according to Rahmat, the benefits derived from the museum’s presence have outweighed the losses incurred.

Colorful animals: Various birds are on display at the Rahmat International Wildlife Museum & Gallery in Medan. JP/Apriadi GunawanThe chairman of the Indonesian Museum Association said his gallery was the only one in Asia with the most complete collection of animals in the world.

Rahmat also said the museum’s animals mostly came from legal hunting in various countries. Some of the animals had died in zoos, were donated by friends, or legally purchased from other countries.

The member of the House of Representatives from North Sumatra acknowledged the museum was developed out of his love for animals and his determination to prevent forest destruction and wildlife extinction.

“This museum has been listed in the Record Book and received a number of national and international awards for conservation to prevent forest and wildlife annihilation in the world,” added Rahmat.