Panthera in Taman Nasional Gunung Halimun

Panthera in Taman Nasional
Gunung Halimun

Maybe there is something lacking in the inventory of knowledge and experience of a profession in the field of biology or agriculture if they had never been to the Bogor Botanical Garden ( the complete Botanical  Garden,the third in the world). Likewise, if you've never spent the night in the Halimun Mountain National Park/Taman Nasional Gunung Halimun (TNGH). Indeed TNGH is  incomplete accommodates all the wildlife and wild flora, but there are quite a jungle atmosphere representation of a forest environment.
Together with two trucks full of students, my own drove Kijang Super mini bus made in '87 with 3 people on the team of supervisor, entered the National Park area. Smooth street in hotmixed asphalt since Parungkuda subdistrict replaced by the stone gravel roads without asphalt. Quite difficult mini bus tires gripping the rocky road sometimes large stone and clay. Fortunately at that time may have been some days it did not rain. Had rain last night, I must surrender, and gave the drive to the driver of Colt-Dolak rural-transport escorting the visitors to the site in the middle of the woods TNGH.
No other cars were passing on the way, only two or three cars Forester-Police that met with our group. For two days and two nights I felt the atmosphere in the park. Night and during the day a team of faculty and students conducted a study and observation. In fact at night the team held a nocturnal observation, the goal can expect to see the king of the jungle tiger that supposedly endangered Java. Here are the story and description.
Halimun Mountain National Park (TNGH) are in the middle of Western Java. The region is located in the 3 districts namely Bogor, Sukabumi and Lebak. TNGH has an area of 40,000 hectares with an altitude of 500-1929 meters above the sea level.
Most of the forests in TNGH is at an altitude of 1000-1400 m above sea level. So most of the sub-montane- tipe dominated by giant trees Rasamala type (Altingia excelsa), puspa (Schima walichii) and teak (Lithocarpus spp.). Mist Mountain peak itself is at an altitude of 1,929 m above sea level, so it is always covered by mist (fog, Sundanese). Some peak is Gn. North Hazy, Gn. Kendeng, Mount Bottle, Gn. Sangga Buana, Gn. Andam, and Gn. South Hazy.
Java or Java Tiger Tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica) is a species of tigers that live on the island of Java. The tiger was declared extinct in the 1980s, due to hunting and the development of agricultural land which reduces drastically the habitat of these animals. However, there is also the possibility of these extinctions occurred around the year 1950 is estimated.
Only live 25 species of tigers tail is in its habitat. Last time signaled the presence of Javan Tiger was in 1972. In 1979, there were signs that a 3 tigers live on the island of Java. Even so, there is little possibility of this beast yet extinct. In the 1990s there were several reports about the existence of this animal, although this could not be verified.
Java Tiger smaller than other types of tigers. Male tiger has a weight of 100-141 kg and a length of approximately 2:43 meters. Females are lighter weight, which is 75-115 kg and a little shorter than the male.
Scientific classification: Kingdom: Animalia. Phylum: Chordata. Class: Mammals. Order: Carnivora. Family: Felidae. Genus: Panthera. Species: Panthera tigris. Upaspesies: Panthera tigris sondaica. Trinomial name: Panthera tigris sondaica. (Temminck, 1844)

That is for a while, the first course, the story of my journey in TNGH about eleven years ago, nostalgic memories again when the name of Mount Salak located in the Halimun mountain into a crowded news because of Russia-made aircraft "Sukhoi" stop took landed in  the national park.