Panthera tigris sondaica: A possible sighting of the 'extinct' Javan Tiger.

Indonesia was once home to three species of Tiger, the Sumatran Tiger, Panthera tigris sumatrae, the Javan Tiger, Panthera tigris sondaica, and the Bali Tiger, Panthera tigris balica. Two of these species  have been declared extinct in the past twenty years, the Javan Tiger in 2008, and the Bali Tiger in 2013, using the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's criteria of not having been observed in more than 30 years; the last confirmed sighting of a Javan Tiger happened in 1976 in Meru Betiri National Park, East Java.

The Javan Tiger was endemic to Java, and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was frequently encountered in lowland forests, thickets, and even gardens on the island. However, it was widely seen as a pest (Tigers will feed on both livestock and Humans), leading to widespread hunting of the species, and its presumed extinction in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The last systematic search for the species deployed 35 camera traps in the Meru Betiri National Park in 1999-2000, but made no observations.

A Javan Tiger observed in Ujung Kulon Nature Reserve (now Ujung Kulon National Park) in 1938. Andries Hoogerwerf/Wikimedia Commons.

Although there have been no confirmed sightings since 1976, rumours of the species' continued existence persist, with numerous unconfirmed sightings, reports of footprints too large to belong to a Leopard, and even reports of attacks on livestock. 

In a paper published in the journal Oryx on 21 March 2024, Wirdateti Wirdateti of the Research Center for Biosystematics and Evolution of the Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency, Yulianto Yulianto of the Research Center for Applied Zoology of the Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency, Kalih Raksasewu of the Yayasan Bentang Edukasi Lestari Bogor Foundation, and Bambang Adriyanto of the Cikepuh Wildlife Reserve, describe a possible sighting of a living Javan Tiger, and the results of an investigation which followed it.

On 18 August 2019, Ripi Yanur Fajar, a local resident and conservationist, reported seeing a Javan Tiger close to the village of Cipendeuy in South Sukabumi Forest, West Java, to Kalih Raksasewu, who visited the site the next day, along with Bambang Adriyanto. Ripi Yanur Fajar described the Tiger as having jumped a fence between a village road and a plantation, and examination of this fence by Raksasewu and Adriyanto led to the discovery of a single hair, which could potentially have come from a Tiger.

The hair recovered by Kalih Raksasewu and Bambang Adriyanto from a fence in Cipendeuy Village, West Java. Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency.

A genetic analysis was subsequently carried out in which DNA from the hair was compared to DNA from Sumatran Tigers, Bengal Tigers, Amur Tigers, Javan Leopards, and a museum specimen of the Javan Tiger, from Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, collected in 1930. The hair was found to show a 4.2% difference to the Leopard sample, differences of between 3.7% and 4.1% from the Sumatran, Bengal, and Amur Tigers, but only a 0.3%d difference from the Javan Tiger museum specimen.

Wirdateti et al. stop short of claiming that they have proof that the Javan Tiger still exists on the basis of a single hair, but do believe that the hair comes from a member of the species, and that this merits further investigation into the possibility of a surviving population of these Tigers in West Java.

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Authorities in Kelantan State, Malaysia, begin capturing wild Tigers after a spate of attacks.

Authorities in Kelantan State, Peninsula Malaysia have begun capturing wild Malaysian Tigers, Panthera tigris jacksoni, following a series of attacks on workers and others on Rubber plantations in the northeast of the country. Traps have been set in forests close to plantations, with two Tigers captured to date, both of which have been sent to a wildlife sanctuary.

A Tiger captured in a trap set by wildlife rangers in Gua Musang, Kelantan. Wildlife Protection and National Parks Department.

The first death occurred on 9 May 2023, when Halim Asin, a member of the Orang Asli indigenous community, was attacked while fishing on the Sg Aring River with his nephew, and later found dead. On 5 October, when another Orang Asli man, Pisie Amud, 25, was attacked and killed why on a fishing trip in the Pos Pasik Forest. On 10 November, Lalu Sukarya Yahya, 42, an Indonesian migrant worker employed as a rubber tapper on a rubber plantation in Kuala Wok near Pos Pasik. The following day, another migrant worker, Ahka Soe Ya, 22, from Myanmar, was attacked by a Tiger while working on Rubber plantation in Kampung Meranto alongside his wife. He was taken to hospital by four Myanmar nationals, thought to be his wife and their friends, but died of injuries to his head and neck. Between 2017 and 2022 only four Tiger attacks were recorded in the state, two of which were fatal.

Police officers recovering the body of Lalu Sukarya Yahya, 42, who was killed in an apparent Tiger attack on a Rubber plantation in Kuala Wok. New Straits Times/Royal Malaysian Police.

The attacks have been blamed upon male Tigers roaming in search of and mates, or else young Tigers learning to hunt and looking for territories of their own. However, it is likely that a change in forest use by Humans in the region is as much to blame. Since the 1980s logging in Malaysian forest reserves has been selective, with loggers only allowed to remove certain trees, leaving the essential structure of the forest unchanged. This changed in 2007 when a new government policy has allowed for the clearing of areas of natural forest for plantation forestry, in which trees are grown on a cycle of felling and replanting. These plantations typically comprise monocultures of trees such as Rubber, Acacia and Eucalyptus, which support far less wildlife than natural forests, providing less food for Tigers, and causing them to roam further afield, and consider non-preferred food items, such as Humans.

Newly planted trees on a plantation in Kelantan, following a cycle of clearing. Malaysialand.

The status of Malaysian Tigers is subject to some dispute. The population in Peninsula Malaysia, which comprises about 200 adult individuals, has been considered to be a separate subspecies, Panthera tigris jacksoni (sometimes Panthera tigris malayensis) since 2004, with that subspecies regarded as Critically Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. However, it is also argued that Malaysian Tigers are not sufficiently distinct to merit this status and that they should be regarded as a population of the Asian Tiger, Panthera tigris tigris, which is regarded as Endangered, a lower threat of extinction, with a much larger population, found from Malaysia to Siberia.

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Survey reveals 27% growth in Bhutan's Tiger population.

A survey carried out by the Forest and Park Services Department of the Royal Government of Bhutan in 2021-22 has found that the current population of adult Bengal Tigers, Panthera tigris tigris, in the country is 131, a 27% increase since the last such survey was carried out in 2015. The species appears to be breeding at different altitudes within the country, suggesting that the increase in population is related to a genuine ecological recovery.

A Tiger imaged by a camara trap in Bhutan during the 2021-22 survey. Forest and Park Services Department of the Royal Government of Bhutan.

Tigers are currently considered to be Endangered under the terms of terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species, with the global population estimated to have declined between 53% and 68% between 1996 and 2014, and a range contraction of more than 50% during the past three generations. Tigers are solitary Big Cats requiring large territories and a supply of suitable prey, ideally Deer or Wild Pigs, to survive. As such they are highly vulnerable to habitat loss, as well as conflict with Humans, as many farmed Animals fall within the prey-size range of Tigers.

The current and former range of the Tiger. IUCN Cat Specialist Group.

Tigers were once found in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam, however, they are now extinct in Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Pakistan, Singapore, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, and Nepal have implemented rigorous monitoring and conservation plans for Tigers since the last ICUN assessment of the global population in 2015, with Bhutan, India, and Nepal all subsequently reporting rises in their Tiger populations.

A family of Tigers imaged by a camara trap in Bhutan during the 2021-22 survey. Forest and Park Services Department of the Royal Government of Bhutan.

The conservation of large predatory Animals such as Tigers is very much dependent on the co-operation of local populations. Tigers are known to take a large number of domestic Animals as prey in Bhutan, but the number of reprisal attacks is surprisingly low. Some of this can be attributed to a culture of respect for nature, however, a survey carried out by the World Wildlife Fund in Trongsa District, which lies entirely within the Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park in the northeast of the country, found that people were concerned by the rise in the Tiger population, citing fears about livestock losses, and reporting that living close to the Big Cats is in itself stressful. The government of Bhutan has established Tiger Conservation Committees in several parts of the country, to encourage stewardship of the species, manage Human-Tiger conflicts, and provide livestock insurance, and the World Wildlife Fund is urging the government to set up more such committees, as well as planning to carry out similar surveys in other parts of the country.

A representative of the World Wildlife Fund interviewing a villager about attitudes to Tigers in Trogsa District, Nepal. Tashi Phuntsho/WWF-Bhutan.

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Pensioner killed by Tiger in Maharashtra State, India.

Authorities in Maharashtra State, India, are trying to locate a Tiger which killed a pensioner on Monday 5 October 2020. Meroti Pendor, 70, from the village of Khambada in Chandrapur District was attacked in the evening while collecting firewood. The Tiger is believed to be the same Animal responsible for another seven fatal attacks over the past two years, and which forest department officials had attempted to shoot with a tranquiliser dart earlier in the same day.

 

A Tiger in the Umred Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary in Maharashtra State, India. Wildlife Institute of India.

Bengal Tigers, Panthera tigris tigris, are considered to be Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, with the Indian subspecies, Panthera tigris tigris, threatened by poaching, loss and fragmentation of habitat, with the result that the total adult Tiger population in India is currently thought to be about 3890 (up from about 1400 in 2006). As such Tigers are heavily protected in India, and the Indian Forest Service usually try to relocate Tigers that come into conflict with Humans to more remote areas, preferably within national parks, though the extent to which local people co-operate is variable, and where conflict occurs within national parks there is limited action that can be taken.

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Indonesian authoriteis arrest five suspected Tiger poachers in Riau Province, Sumatra.

Five people have been arrested on suspicion of Tiger poaching in the Pelalawan Regency of Riau Province, Sumatra on Saturday 7 December 2019. Three people were initially arrested in a raid in Teluk Binjai village by personnel from the Environment and Forestry Ministry and the National Police, following a tip off they were trying to sell a Tiger skin. The three were found to be in possession of both the skin of a female Tiger, and a jar containing four Tiger foetuses; it is not clear if they come from the same animal. The three gave the names of two further people who were later arrested in Pangkalan Lesung subdistrict. It is thought that all of these individuals were part of a ring of poachers and smugglers that had targeted Tigers on several parts of the island of Sumatra.

Tiger body parts seized in a raid by authorities in Sumatra this week. AFP.

The Sumatran Tiger, Panthera tigris sondaica, is considered to be Critically Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, with less than 400 individuals surviving on the island of Sumatra; the subspecies was formerly also found on Java and Borneo, but is thought to be extinct there. Sumatran Tigers are threatened by habitat loos and poaching, with poaching thought to be resulting in the loss of about 40 animals per year.

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Notorious Tiger-poacher arrested in Madhya Pradesh, India.

The Madhya Pradesh Special Taskforce, a police unit set up in 2002 to fight organised crime a terrorism, has captured a notorious Tiger poacher during a raid on a cottage by the Gujarat-Vadodara Highway this week. The Yarlen, 30, also known as Luzalen and Jazrat, went missing in 2014 while facing charges of poaching, after being caught with a Tiger skin. He has reportedly confessed to a number of wildlife crimes, including the death of T13, a female Tiger who went missing in the Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, while raising two cubs. T13 was last recorded in the reserve by a camera trap on 28 February 2012, her skin was confiscated from a smuggler in Nepal on 12 January 2013. Yarlen is also believed to have confessed to the killing of several other Tigers, and as well as a number of Sloth Bears, Melursus ursinus, which have been found dead in the state with their penises removed. Some news reports have suggested that Yerlan was eating the penises to boost his own sexual prowess, but wildlife authorities suspect him of selling them to smugglers, who will in sell them on for their supposed aphrodisiac purposes.

The poacher Yerlan, 30, arrested in Madhya Pradesh this week after a six year hunt. Opindia.

Tigers are considered to be Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, with the Indian subspecies, Panthera tigris tigris, threatened by poaching, loss and fragmentation of habitat, with the result that the total adult Tiger population in India is currently thought to be about 3890 (up from about 1400 in 2006). As such Tigers are heavily protected in India, and those found in possession of Tiger body parts can face severe penalties.

Sloth Bears are considered to be Vulnerable under the terms of the Red List, with a population of no more than 20 000, though the exact population size is unclear, due to the difficulties of surveying a wide-ranging species with large territories. The species is still found in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, but considered to be extinct in Bangladesh, which once formed part of its range. It may still be present in Bhutan. Sloth Bears are considered to be at risk due to habitat loss and conflict with Humans over resources, as well as active hunting.

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Pench Reserve

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Pench Reserve

Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/71696036.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst