Tempo.co, Saturday, 19 October, 2013
TEMPO.CO, Malang - Many literary works state that the Javan tiger went extinct sometime between the 1950s and the 1980s. However, the existence of the tiger is actually still mysterious as many residents living near forests in Java claim to have sighted the wild animal.
"These testimonies actually give us hope that the Javan tiger is not really extinct even though our chance to see it may be extremely low," said Toni Artaka, coordinator of the Ranu Tompe Ecology Expedition and Exploration at Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, on Wednesday.
Experts were even more excited when they spotted claw marks of the carnivore on a tree last Wednesday. Based on literary works on the tiger, claw marks that large only belong to the Sumatran tiger or Javan tiger.
Aside from that, the team also discovered footprints and species of a large carnivore. Muhmudin Rahmadana, Tony’s teammate, admitted this was the first time he saw a carnivore’s feces exceed the size of a regular leopard’s feces.
TNBTS head Ayu Dewi Utari backed the statements made by her men. She said that up until now, no valid literature has confirmed the extinction of the Javan tiger. In addition, many residents claimed to have spotted the ‘striped tiger’, which is what the locals dub the Javan tiger.
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za 19 okt 2013 - 22:50