Five friends claim they will never forget the special evening in Indonesia after their Independence Celebration where they encountered a very large cat in Sukabumi, West Java province. One of them, named Rapi Yanuar Fajar, is a local conservationist. He contacted Kalih Raksaewu who is a researcher at the county’s National Research and Innovation Agency and his friends have either seen Javan leopard or a Javan tiger, a species that supposedly went extinct in the 1980’s but was officially declared extinct in 2008. 10 days later they went back to the site with Kaih. They found a hair strand on a plantation fence and also found footprints and claw marks that resemble a tiger’s. Kalih sent the hair sample and other records to the West Java Provincial Conservation. It eventually went to BRIN where they compared the strand of hair to other tiger species. The discussion that followed suggested the Javan tiger may still be living in one of the most populated islands of earth. The testing compared the hair sample to other tigers, javan leopards, and other closely related animals. The study said that the tiger hair had a 97.06% similarity with Sumatran tigers and 96.87% with Bengal tigers. A island the size of Mississippi and home to 270 million residents of Indonesia was thought that they drove the tiger to extinction but it turns out that the tiger does still live and that it is very endangered and close to extinction due to hunting and rapid deforestation in its native island. There have been rumors of sightings over the years but failed to prove its existence. Didik Raharyo, a Javan Tiger expert, said that sightings must be taken seriously and called on the environment ministry to draft and issue a policy on measures to find and conserve the Javan tiger.