A group of ecologists and zoologists from Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency discovered fur samples of the Javan tiger on the island of Java. This species was officially declared extinct in 2008. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Oryx
Previous research had shown that the Javan tiger once lived on the island. The beast is a subspecies of the more famous Sumatran tiger.
Their numbers began to decline when humans invaded the predators’ territory. They disappeared completely after farmers started shooting the animals due to attacks by livestock. A living specimen in the wild was last seen in 1979.
Residents of Java occasionally reported seeing tigers, but their reports were not documented. Finally, in 2019, environmentalists managed to find some wool stuck to the fence of one of the fields.
During the study, scientists analyzed the material’s DNA and compared it to samples of Javanese tiger fur in the museum. The results showed close agreement.
In the future, experts will try to find Javan tigers living on the island.
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Source: Gazeta
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