ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - A - THE TIGER (Panthera tigris)

[Sanju]

The Bali tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) formally ‘’P. tigris balica’’ , harimau Bali in Indonesian, or samong in Balinese, is an extinct tiger subspecies that was native to the Indonesian island of Bali. The Bali tiger was the smallest of all nine tiger races (formally sub-species), comparable to a large leopard or cougar in size.

WEIGHT

Male: usually 90–100 kg (200–220 lb),

Female: was 65–80 kg (143–176 lb).

LENGTH

Male: about 220–230 cm (87–91 in) in length (with tail),

Female: 190–210 cm (75–83 in).

It was one of three races/subspecies of tigers found in Indonesia or Sundaland, and the first to go extinct. Others include Javan tiger, which is also extinct, and the "Critically Endangered" Sumatran tiger.

Bali tiger became extinct because of habitat loss and hunting. Given the small size of the island and limited forest cover, the original population could never have been large.
Surabayan gunmaker E. Munaut is confirmed to have killed over 20 tigers in only a few years in 1930s.

Quote:The last specimen definitely recorded was a female shot at Sumbar Kima, west Bali, on 27 September 1937.

It was probably eliminated by the end of World War II. A few tigers may have survived until the 1950s, but no specimen reached museum collections after the war.

Many claims of sighting have been made since, but without proof, mostly by forestry officers, in 1952, 1970 and 1972. Though it is thought that the Balinese tiger was never captured alive on film or motion picture, or displayed in a public zoo, but some records now show it indeed was captured alive on film.

Quote:In early 1910s two young Bali tigers were trapped down by some Hungarian hunters and sold to USA based ‘’Ringling Brothers Circus’’. They were photographed by Circus Life photographer Harry A. Atwell in 1915.

Photos were later tracked down from a history book who documented these animals. Only a few skulls, skins and bones are preserved in museums. The British Museum in London has the largest collection, with two skins and three skulls.

In 1941, the first game reserve, today's West Bali National Park, was established in western Bali, but too late to save Bali‘s tiger population from extinction. A few tiger skulls, skins and bones are preserved in museums. The British Museum in London has the largest collection, with two skins and three skulls.

Others include the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt, the Naturkunde Museum in Stuttgart, the Naturalis museum in Leiden and the Zoological Museum of Bogor, Indonesia, which owns the remnants of the last known Bali tiger.

In 1997, a skull emerged in the old collection of the Hungarian Natural History Museum and was scientifically studied and properly documented.

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