By Andries Hoogerwerf (29 August 1906 – 5 February 1977) – http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/speciesinfo/images/javant3.gif, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1889781
Jon Emont reports A Late-Night Sighting, and a Single Hair, Rekindle Hopes That an Extinct Tiger Lives On (‘Against all odds, DNA analysis suggests that a giant predator may have survived in Java, one of the most densely populated places on earth’):
Five years ago, Kalih Raksasewu was getting his car tuned when his mechanic shared a curious tidbit: He had stumbled upon a tiger near his home. The startled creature jumped a fence and vanished, the man said.
Strange encounter, thought Raksasewu. Not least because the men live on Indonesia’s most populous island, Java, and especially because Javan tigers have long been believed extinct. The last confirmed sighting dates back nearly half a century, to 1976.
Raksasewu took out his phone and showed the mechanic images of leopards, which can sometimes be confused for tigers. No sir, came the reply. The cat had stripes.
Raksasewu found himself getting excited. A researcher involved in local conservation work, he had grown up hearing tales of the giant felines, including from his mother, who once saw one while driving. “In my heart I’ve always been greatly interested in this creature, and I was very sad when it was declared extinct,” he said.
….
Then they saw it: a single strand of hair that lay on the low wooden fence the animal had allegedly jumped. “I had this hope that the tiger had a hair snagged when he leapt,” said Raksasewu. “It turned out to be true.”
….
Two weeks ago, DNA analysis suggested a match: Javan tiger. In an article in Oryx, a peer-reviewed journal published by Cambridge University Press, researchers said they compared DNA from the lone hair with that of its nearest living relative, Sumatran tigers—close but no cigar.
Same for the DNA of a Javan leopard. The best match: the DNA of a Javan tiger from the 1930s preserved at an Indonesian museum.
Perhaps, just perhaps.
Here’s hoping.