Natural History Museum

Announcement: Unfortunately this museum had been closed in 2017 and will be relocated to another premises later. Head for other museums in Kuala Lumpur.

The Natural History Museum or Muzium Alam Semulajadi is located in Precinct 15, Putrajaya. This museum is located within the vicinity of Nexus International School and was opened to the public on 1 Feb 2010. This museum is managed by the Department of Museum under the Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture.

The big signage that you will see as you enter the museum.

Currently, the theme of the exhibition is mammals of Malaysia with special emphasis on endanger animals that are rarely seen nowadays except in the zoo. The mammals that are on displayed have been preserved and look very much like the live animals. There are some write-up on these animals hence this place is a good place to gain some educational knowledge especially students who are in primary or secondary schools.

The Natural History Museum is a two-storey building with modern facilities. Currently the ground floor consists of exhibits on mammals of Malaysia. The first floor has exhibits of insects such as butterflies, stick insects, beetles and bats. Plan to spend an hour or so here as you look into the details of the animals here.

The huge Bryde Whale skeleton near the entrance.

Look out for the following animals while you are here.

Malayan Sun Bear unlike other bears do not hibernate and can reproduce throughout the year. They have good smell sense but poor eyesight. Their claws can exceed 10cm in length which enable them to dig termite nests and rip open trees when looking for food. The scientific name of the bear is Helarctos Malayanus and is called Beruang Matahari in Bahasa Melayu.

The Asian Elephant is also known as Elephas Maximus or Gajah Asia in Bahasa Melayu. Its ancestor is believed to be the mammoth which had extinct since the Ice Age. You have probably seen the animated mammoth if you have seen the Ice Age show. This species of elephant held the longest tusks record at 1.75 m with a weight of 41 kg. The other fact that you will discover here is that the skull made up 15% of the weight of the total body weight of the elephant. They also swim well.

The tigers and leopards.

The elephant Tusks.

Tiger species shown here are the Tiger (Panthera tigris), Clouded Lepard (Pardofelis nebolusa) and Leopard (Panthera pardus). The tiger likes to play in the water. The Malaysian Tiger (Panthera tigris malayensis) is the second smallest tiger species. The Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) is the smallest with a length of 2.4 m and 120 kg in weight. Clouded leopard hunts at night and spend the day sleeping.

Primate here include the Orang Utan and the tarsier. The Orang Utan means "man of the forest" and their population has been declining as man have been encroaching into their habitat. Currently, most of them can still be found in the reserve forests of Sabah and Sarawak. The tarsier is one of the smallest primates and can be found in Borneo, Sumatra and the Philippines. They are about 6 inches in length.

Bryde Whale or Balaenoptera edeni skeleton is located near the main entrance of the Natural History Museum. This huge whale was found washed ashore at Tanjung Aru Village in Labuan on 2 Feb 2005 and has now been preserved here.

Other exhibits include the bats, pangolin, otter, squirrels, rodents, tapir, deer, mainland serow and the sumatran rhinoceros.

Deer At Natural History Museum Putrajaya

The deer.

The insect exhibits on the first floor.

Operation Hours & Fees

The visiting hours to the museum is from 9am to 5pm daily including weekends. It is closed on the First day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri and Hari Raya Aidiladha.

Entrance fee for Malaysian is RM2.00 for adult and children 12 years old above. It is free of charge for students with uniform.

Entrance fee for foreigner is RM5.00 for adult and children 6 years old above.

Getting here

This museum is located at Precint 15. The GPS coordinates are
N02° 56.747' E101° 43.517'.

Address

Muzium Alam Semulajadi
Jalan Diplomatik, Presint 15
62000 Putrajaya

Tel: +6 03 8890 2884