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Concept
Bornean tiger
Summary
The Bornean tiger or Borneo tiger is possibly an extinct tiger population that lived on the island of Borneo in prehistoric times.
A live Bornean tiger has not been conclusively recorded, but the indigenous Dayak people believe in its existence, and occasionally report sightings.
In Malaysia's Sarawak, about 750,000 animal bone fragments were excavated in Niah National Park between 1954 and 1966. A metacarpal bone fragment measuring more than was identified as being of a young tiger. Two fossil bone fragments excavated at the Ille Cave on the island of Palawan in the Philippines were identified as being of a tiger. One fragment is a full basal phalanx bone of the second digit of the left manus measuring ; the other is the distal portion of a subterminal phalanx of the same digit and manus measuring . These lengths are similar to those of living tigers from the Malay Peninsula and India.
The Bornean tiger is considered to have been rather small in size. According to the native people, it is bigger than a Bornean clouded leopard, and largely brown in colour with faint stripes.
The Borneo tiger is thought to have preyed on ungulate species such as the Bornean bearded pig, the Bornean yellow muntjac and the sambar deer. According to the local Dayak, the tiger did not climb trees.
Archaeological excavations produced an upper canine tooth, a navicular and a metacarpal bone that were identified as being of a tiger. It has therefore been suggested that the tiger was present in Borneo during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. A bone fragment was also found in the Philippine island of Palawan. Archaeologists considered it unlikely that these fragments were traded between different regions during the Pleistocene.
Borneo might have been connected to Palawan during the penultimate and previous glacial periods, judging from the molecular phylogeny of murids in the area. Tiger parts were commonly used as amulets in South and Southeast Asia, so it is possible that the tiger parts found in Palawan were imported from elsewhere.
Official source
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