Photo taken in 1938
In the early 19th century Javan tigers were so common all over Java, that in some areas they were considered nothing more than pests. As the human population rapid increased, large parts of the island were cultivated, leading inevitably to a severe reduction of their natural habitat. Wherever man moved in, the Javan tigers were ruthlessly hunted down or poisoned. The Javan tiger experienced growing competition for prey species with wild dogs and leopards. Natives carried much of the hunting out, a surprising thing since they considered the tiger a reincarnation of their dead relatives. By 1940, tigers had become restricted to remote mountain ranges and forests. In the mid-1950s only 20-25 Javan tigers remained on Java. During the 1960s the Javan tiger even disappeared from the famous Ujung Kulon reserve on the western tip of Java, where nowadays the last Javan rhinoceroses live. The last stronghold of the Javan tiger was a rugged area in southeastern Java, known as Meru-Betiri, which had become a game reserve in 1972. It was considered this tiger's last chance for survival. However, even it was declared a reserve, the area was under attack by agricultural development. A track count revealed that in 1979 at most three Javan tigers where still living there. The Javan tiger has not been seen or tracked since. The exact time of extinction remains unknown, but this subspecies must have become extinct in the early 1980s.
I say drag the carcass of the second to last one through the streets, if thats what it takes to make people sit up and take notice.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Lest we think there is not an urgency. The message needs to be "shockingly" delivered.
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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Both the Javan and the Caspian tigers could have been and should have been "saved" or at least preserved genetically through captive reproductive conservation. They quite literally missed the boat by a decade or two. Years ago in Gainesville I spent some time working around the last Dusky Seaside Sparrows, a group of five males. By the time the sparrows were brought into captivity it was too late, there were no more females. It was heartbreaking. This is where animal liberation falls on its face. Neither politically unstable governments nor economically aggressive (growth at all costs) governments can protect highly endangered species. I'm sure that Rwanda cares about Mountain Gorillas, but translating caring into action is politically unpopular. Animal liberationists decry captivity suggesting that extinction is better than a zoo (or circus.) How is it better? Elephant populations in several Asian countries are racing toward zero. Subspecies like the Sumatran animals will disappear. Explain to me why it would be immoral to import and manage a viable locality population of such animals outside their country of origin? Sometimes all that I can do is read the numbers and scream.
There's legitimate debate over the reintroduction of endangered species held in captivity into restored habitats. It's hugely expensive, hasn't been done successfully all that much, and in some cases it might take a Century to reclaim a suitable habitat. But it's not impossible so long as viable animals exist. And there's a statistical basis for believing that human populations will peak and decline over the next hundred years. When that happens there may be space for "the wild" again.
Could it work? Who knows... What's lost in trying? Back in the late 1980's a wild idea came along -- unpopular in places like Wade's home state of North Dakota -- to return 100,000 square miles of connected portions of the plains to shortgrass prairie. The plan was called Buffalo Commons. The notion was that many areas of the High Plains have seen a marked decline in human population and are essentially too dry for long term agricultural use. What the lands are good for is bison. As public policy Buffalo Common was/is far too radical... But in the twenty years since the notion was proposed it hasn't gone away and land purchases throughout the west by media baron Ted Turner form something of a skeleton upon which a Common could be created. Today we're in the first days of a very painful transition to the "post-oil" epoch. The next twenty years will be rough. One thing we may learn in the transition is that some ecosystems just don't work for development absent cheap fossil fuels. And if we do learn that, there are places in the world where we can restore "the wild" and we can bring back "wild animals." But we can't do anything once a species is extinct.
Ben
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