#javan tigers

[waterwitchings]

Skin of a Javan tiger in the collection of the Tropenmuseum, 1915

A tiger fight in Java, 1870–1892

A group of men and children poses with a killed tiger in Malingping in Banten, West Java, 1941

A tiger killed along with seven Javan leopards during Rampokan in Kediri, East Java, circa 1900

[waterwitchings]

A photo of a Javan tiger, 1938 at Ujung Kulon

[timbernews]

The return of the Javan tiger. Not.

Of the three subspecies of Indonesian tigers, two — the Bali tiger and the Javan tiger — have been declared extinct. The Sumatran tiger still exists on Sumatra, but it is considered critically endangered, the result of hunting and rapid deforestation. Rangers at Ujung Kulon National Park in West Java last month photographed a big cat unlike any previously seen in the preserve. They claim it’s the Javan tiger, a subspecie declared extinct more than 40 years ago.

The pictures, released this week, set off a flurry of speculation that one of Indonesia’s legendary species was still alive, and offered a rare bit of positive environmental news to a country in which natural places are being destroyed at an alarming rate.

“This used to be Javan tiger habitat,” Mamat Rahmat, the head of conservation at the park, told the local news media. “We hope that they’re still there.”

The photograph, which circulated across social media, prompted the World Wildlife Fund to support an expedition in search of the supposed tiger.

Despite the rangers’ excitement, some conservationists were skeptical that the cat really was a Javan tiger. “When the video is frozen the effect is that it looks like a tiger,” said Wulan Pusparini, a tiger expert at the Wildlife Conservation Society, who viewed video footage of the animal. However, when the animal was seen moving, she said, it more closely resembled a leopard. Javan leopards are an endangered species, and are rarely seen.

“Javan tigers have been extinct for three generations,” Ms. Wulan said. She said she wished the Indonesian public would get as excited about saving endangered animals as they have been this week about the potential for discovering an extinct species.