Javanese Tiger – extinct in the wild, extinct in our minds?

Whilst trawling through the internet trying to find information about the Javanese tiger I was surprised to discover that although the species became extinct in the mid-1970s there is very little research about the tiger and few images too. I recently bought an interesting conservation book called Berkaca di Cermin Retak from the Indonesia School of Photography bookshop in Malang which stocks books about poetry, literature, science, politics, psychology, sociology and many more subjects.

In this book I found an image of a Javanese tiger specimen on exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History in Leiden. The book explained that there are now only 7 skin specimens of the Javanese tiger in the world. There are 3 specimens in the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense in Bogor, 2 in the Museum Leiden in The Netherlands, 1 in England and 1 in France. Later the book asks: how many private collectors out there have their own stuffed tiger? I wonder if these collectors knew their role in the tiger’s demise?

Javanese tiger specimen. Copyright Ed Colijn from the book Berkaca di Cermin Retak by Wiratno, Daru Indriyo, Ahmad Syarifudin and Ani Kartikasari. Published in 2001 by FOReST Press, The Gibbon Foundation Indonesia and PILI – NGO Movement.