The Java Tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica)

[phatio]

Recently i came across an article  written by  Nico J. van Strien. "The impact of the Krakatoa eruption in 1883 on the population of Rhinoceros sondaicus in Ujung Kulon, with details of rhino observations from 1857 to 1949". 
Nico van Strien (1 April 1946 – 7 February 2008) was a well-known biologist interested in the birds and mammals of Africa and South-East Asia.

some interesting note from this article regarding javan tiger :

.....On 19 January 1752, the Swedish chaplain and amateur naturalist Pehr Osbeck (1723-1805), who attended lectures by Linnaeus in Uppsala, anchored in Meeuwenbaai (Mew Bay, West Java) on his return from China.  He recorded that it was hazardous to reach the shore due to the abundance of corals. Walking from the beach inland, he found the forest very thick, wet, and dangerous due to the abundance of tigers and other carnivores (Osbeck 1765: 352-353).....

.....Sijfert Hendrik Koorders (1863-1919) was the first president of the “Nederlandsch Indische Vereeninging voor Natuurbescherming” (Society for Nature Conservation in the Dutch East Indies) founded in 1912. He visited Ujung Kulon from 25 June to 6 August 1892 and mentioned that the peninsula was covered with primary forest and was uninhabited, except for the area around the First Point.  He encountered fresh spoor of rhino, besides many deer, tigers and banteng (Koorders 1916).....

well i have no doubt that tigers and other animals were still plentiful those day. What interests me most about the high number of tigers is that there were ‘a plague of tigers’ happened back then.

.....About 20 years later, Veth (1875: 247) stated that Rumah Tigah in the bay behind Pulau Peutjang was then the only settlement in Ujung Kulon.  According to Kal (1910: 139), the village of Djoengkoelon (Djungkulon) opposite Meeuweneiland, with about 40 houses, had been devastated during the eruption, but people had returned there afterwards, only to leave permanently due to a plague of tigers.  Similarly, Halewijn (1933) mentioned that the village of some 500 people which existed near the mouth of the Tji Boenar (Tji Bunar) had been abandoned in 1906 due to a plague of tigers.....

if it’s all about tiger preying on their livestock, they wouldn't abandoned their village, seems like it’s about human-tiger conflict. @peter, i wonder if you have data of the human-tiger conflicts in Java?

Some Javan Tigers stuff i have gathered

Woman with Javan tiger head 1935

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A Paper Animal Kingdom from Special Collections of the University of Amsterdam, 1862-1876

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Paiting by Raden Sarief Bustaman Saleh - Fight between a Javanese rhinoceros and two tigers

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portrait of a Javan tigress

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This Javan tiger relief coin confirms my suspection that this species (java-bali) don’t have prominent abdominal flap unlike their sumatran cousin

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collection of the Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology in Leiden

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illustration from 1841(?) not so sure about it

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Some illustrations made by Robert Bret Simmer (cmiiw). I think his works is amazing, it has very fine detail and the subjects looks very much alive.

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fyi thats a Banteng gaur, not wild water buffalo

An illustration of a battle between a slave and a Tiger that was published by Le Monde Illustre in 1862. Le Monde Illustre is a Parisian leading newspaper company in the 19thCentury

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a Dutch and locals accidentally came accross javan tigress with her two cubs

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Local painting depicting tiger find it's way to a man outside the temple (probably Bali)

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Another local painting

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And this is my favorite, Tigers at a Temple Stairs in Moonlight, Oil Painting by Herman van den Poll, 1929.

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Probablably this painting based from his own observation back then, we will never know. But i like it so much, it has that kind of vibe that I can't explain. They are the tigers who often appearing in my dreams.

Landscape of Java by Abraham Salm 1872

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credit to Andrian Siagian http://squaresolid.tumblr.com/ Reply