Animals were also a source of entertainment for visitors to the Dutch East Indies. Since the early nineteenth century, Buitenzorg had boasted a modest zoo, founded by the Dutch, and adjoining the Governor-General’s palace. Here, travellers could gaze at the beautiful tigers without any danger. The zoo also boasted two ‘monstrous’ caimans, kept in a brick water tank. A small distance away stood the monkey house, and there were aviaries, with parrots, birds-of-paradise and black swans. It was not until 1864 that the colony’s capital saw the opening of the Batavia Plant and Animal Garden, which has been in existence to the present day (Ragunan Zoo in Jakarta), albeit not at the original location.
European women posing with two monkeys in the zoo, presumably in Fort de Kock (Bukittinggi) in Sumatra, 1936. [KITLV 76392]