What tiger subspecies was native to Java before going extinct in the 1970s?

The tiger subspecies native to Java before its extinction was the Javan tiger.

The Javan tiger was a tiger population found on the Indonesian island of Java. It once ranged across much of the island, but agricultural expansion, plantations, hunting, prey loss and habitat fragmentation steadily reduced its territory. By around 1940, it had retreated mainly to remote mountain and forest areas.

The last confirmed population survived around what is now Meru Betiri National Park in southeastern Java. Tigers were sighted there in 1976, and later searches found tracks and reports but no definitive photographic or physical proof. After repeated surveys, the population was assessed as extinct; the extinction assessment was published in 2008.

The Javan tiger is often confused with the Bali tiger or with the living Sumatran tiger because all belonged to the Sunda-Island tiger lineage. Modern felid taxonomy places the Javan, Bali and Sumatran populations within Panthera tigris sondaica, although older references treated them as separate subspecies. “Extinct in the 1970s” refers to the disappearance of the last confirmed wild animals, not the later formal assessment.