Natural History

In ascending order:

3.  The Javan Tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) This tiger subspecies lived on the Indonesian island  of Java. The last recorded specimen was spotted in 1972. However, the distinct pug marks of three Javan tigers were identified in 1979. Officially, this subspecies has been considered extinct since the 1980’s.

But unofficially, sightings continue. In November of 2008, the body of a female hiker was found in Mount Merbabu National Park. Supposely, she had been killed by a tiger. In January 2009, a tigress with two cubs was spotted near a village in East Java.

Now, this evidence points to the very real possibility that the Javan tiger is not yet extinct. The conformation of this subspecies species would be a real boon to tiger conservation around the world.

2. The Eastern cougar (Puma concolor couguar)– The mountain lion/cougar/puma/catamount species once ranged through much of the Americas, including parts of eastern Canada and the East Coast of the US. Today, the cat has been officially extirpated from that range.  It can be found in the Western US, but the only state in the East where it can still be found is Florida, where the unique Florida subspecies is called the “Florida panther.”

Today, cougars have been sighted throughout the eastern part of North America. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have had their fair share of sitings, as has have the Appalachian Mountain states, especially West Virginia, where the Eastern Cougar Foundation is located. This species has been known to live rather close to man. A population of these cats can be found around the outskirts of Los Angeles, and many people don’t even realize that these cats live there. It is very possible for a population of these big cats to remain hidden for a rather long time. Sightings continue to be on the increase.

1. Eskimo Curlew (Numenius borealis)– Now, you would know that someone with a bit of an ornithological bent would choose a bird to be his number 1. And this is quite a bird. At one point, it was probably the most numerous shorebird in the Americas. Today, it is either extinct or critically endangered.

These birds made epic migrations every year from the pampas of Argentina to the Alaskan and Western Canadian Arctic, which were its breeding grounds. These birds traveled in mass flocks that would descend upon the marshes and farm fields. Settlers called them “prairie pigeons,” because they reminded their massive flocks reminded them of the vast flocks “wild pigeons” (passenger pigeons) that lived in the East. However, their presence wasn’t welcome. Not realizing that these shorebirds didn’t eat grain, the farmers shot them as pests. They didn’t realize how many harmful insects the curlews were eating each year.

It is estimated that around 2 million Eskimo curlews were killed per year in the final decades of the nineteenth century. Such a heavy killing meant that it didn’t take long for the species to dwindle to next to nothing.

The official status on the Eskimo curlew is that it is not extinct. However, it is very rare. It was last confirmed on Galveston Island, Texas, in 1962 and in Barbados in 1963. A flock was spotted in Texas in 1981, and individual birds have been spotted in Texas, Argentina, and Canada. The latest sighting was in 2006 in Nova Scotia.

So it is very likely that a very small number of Eskimo curlews still exist.

That is quite sad when one considers how many millions of these birds there once were. It has been speculated that the massive flocks of curlews and American golden plovers were the bird species that told Columbus that he was nearing land after 65 days at sea. Thus, this bird species had a role in bringing together the Old World and the New.

Today, this species is waiting for a Columbus to find it once again.