In 2017, it was a false alarm. Could 2019 have been the real deal? Another sighting of the Javan tiger was reported in a village on the Indonesian island. Five years later, genetic analysis of a hair sample has just been published, and the results are quite surprising…
In 2017, Wulan Pusparini, a tiger specialist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, called on the Indonesian public – somewhat ironically – to get as excited about conserving endangered animals as they did that week about the potential discovery of an extinct species.
She was both right and wrong: right, of course, about the need to protect the entire Indonesian ecosystem by valuing the living rather than fantasizing about the extinct… and wrong since, unexpectedly, the great saga of the Javan JavaJava tiger might not be over. Considered officially extinct in 2008, thirty years after its last sighting, this subspecies was reportedly seen in 2019, in a village west of Java. Another sighting accompanied, this time, by evidence.
Troubling genetic analyses
Genetic analyses conducted in 2022 on a hair sample obtained from the village have, in fact, been revealed this month. The results show genetic similarities with the animal. “The genetic distance between the putative Javan tiger hair and the Javan tiger museum specimen is 0.040”, details the study published in the journal Oryx. These results place the owner of this hair as a specimen of the same group as our supposedly extinct species, and much more similar than its famous close cousins, the Sumatran tiger or the Bengal tigerBengal tiger.
These findings bring hope to researchers and government officials, who are considering additional conservation measures with the installation of camera traps and further genetic research.
However, no new specimen has been observed by various scientific bodies, leading specialists to remain cautious. Furthermore, if the species’ survival were confirmed, it would be hanging by a thread, and its conservation would be a great challenge, highlighting the need for more field studies to confirm the continued presence of the species and better understand the threats it faces, especially poaching and deforestationdeforestation.