Today, only Sumatran tigers live on the islands of Indonesia. These are the smallest tigers of all existing ones, but at the same time they stand out for their aggressiveness. Experts believe that they are always ready to attack because people destroy their habitats and pose a threat to their lives. Now Sumatran tigers are on the verge of complete destruction – there is no exact data, but it is assumed that there are a maximum of 500 tigers on the island of Sumatra. If local residents continue to pose a threat to them, they may suffer the same fate as their relatives, the Javan tigers. They were declared extinct in 2008 because they had not been seen for a long time. However, maybe they are alive – relatively recently, scientists found and studied a piece of fur that clearly belongs to a forgotten animal. All is not lost yet?
Javan tiger in 1938. Image: Wikipedia
Contents
- 1 Tigers in Indonesia
- 2 Extinction of Yaman tigers
- 3 Search for extinct animals
- 4 Resurrection of extinct animals
Tigers in Indonesia
Sumatran and Javan tigers belong to the same species, Panthera tigris sondaica. The only difference between them is that the Sumatran population lives exclusively on the island of Sumatra, and the Javanese population lives exclusively on the island of Java.
The islands of Sumatra and Java in Indonesia. Image: azimutour.ru
These are the smallest tigers in the world. Their body length is on average 2.4 meters, and their weight does not exceed 140 kilograms. For comparison, other types of tigers can be 2.5 meters in length and weigh up to 350 kilograms.
Tiger species Panthera tigris sondaica. Image: travelask.ru
Apart from their size and habitat, these evil predators are no different from other tigers. They have sharp fangs, clawed paws and a striped body.
Read also:The most dangerous predator on Earth – it brings death to all living things
The extinction of Yaman tigers
There are about 500 Sumatran tigers left, but people have not seen Javan tigers for several decades. Already in the 1950s, only about 25 individuals of these creatures remained on the island of Java. In 1972, the number of Javan tigers was 7 individuals, and in 1979 there were only three left. Scientists believe they went extinct in the 1980s, but Javan tigers were officially declared extinct only in 2008.
Javan tigers are one of the many animals harmed by humans. Image: haski-mana.ru
The cause of extinction of Javan tigers was human activity. A huge number of people live on this island in Indonesia – so that they do not starve, they need fields for agriculture. For them to appear, people had to cut down a huge amount of forests. All the wild animals of the island of Java, including tigers, began to live in very cramped conditions in the remaining forests. Of course, they were starving and looking for food – they managed to attack several people, so they were hunted. This certainly had a significant impact on the number of Javan tigers.
Related article:In India, a tigress killed 436 people – more than any serial killer
Searching for extinct ones animals
For many years, Javan tigers were considered extinct. But in 2019, there was hope that they might be alive.
In August that year, local conservationist Ripi Yanur Fajar announced that he had seen one tiger in western Java. He reported this to scientists, and they decided to study the meeting place between man and predator. Indeed, on one fence they found the fur of some animal, and also found paw prints.
Perhaps there are still tigers left somewhere in the corners of the island of Java. Image: bangkokbook.ru
In 2022, wool samples were sent to the laboratory for genetic research. They were compared to the fur of Sumatran tigers from a nearby island, as well as museum samples of Javan tiger fur from the 1930s. As expected, the fur belonged to a tiger of the species Panthera tigris sondaica – the genetic data matched 97%.
After the study, the chances that Javan tigers are still alive have increased markedly. Image: DALLE-3 neural network
Today, scientists have good reason to believe that Javan tigers are still alive. They may be hiding in the remaining 30% of the island's virgin forests. But to be sure of this, scientists need to conduct more research. If the tigers that were considered extinct are actually alive, they need to be taken under protection and their population restored.
You will be interested in:A selection of the most frightening animals in the history of the Earth
Resurrection of extinct animals
Cases when “extinct” organisms suddenly turned out to be alive are not uncommon. An example is a story that happened in 2021. Then, off the coast of Japan, scientists managed to find life forms that were considered extinct several hundred million years ago. We are talking about sea lilies and six-rayed corals, which you can learn more about by reading the article “Organisms extinct 270 million years ago found alive.”
Sea lily and coral. Image: Zapalski et al., Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol., 2021
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Also on the topic of extinct animals, be sure to read the article by my colleague Andrei Zhukov “Did Tasmanian tigers actually live until the 90s?” You will learn a lot of interesting things!