JAVAN TIGER (Panthera tigris sondaica), subspecies of tiger native to the Indonesian island of Java that was hunted to extinction toward the end of the twentieth century. P. tigris sondaica was smaller than most Asian tigers but larger than the Bali tiger. Its habitat included forests, grasslands, and mangrove swamps. Javan-tiger populations were decimated both by habitat loss due to deforestation, agricultural expansion, and human settlement and by rampant hunting and poaching—they were hunted for their skins as trophies and for their body parts, which were highly valued in traditional medicine. Efforts to conserve the Javan tiger proved insufficient and by the end of the 1970s the species was deemed extinct, though it would not be formally declared as such until 2008.
In 2019 a local conservationist claimed to have seen a Javan tiger in the western part of the island and notified researchers, who located a single strand of hair clinging to a fence and had it genetically analyzed. The lab report concluded the hair had indeed likely come from a Javan tiger. No further sightings have been recorded to date.