Tasmanian tiger nears extinction

JAKARTA (JP): Snow mice (Neo Phascogale Lourentzii) and Tasmanian tigers in the Jayawijaya glacier, Irian Jaya, may be wiped out because their habitat is shrinking, an environmental activist says.

Richard Kalelago of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) told Antara earlier this week that a 1972 survey by an Australian had said the mice were abundant, but the latest study, in 1993, had said the animals were hard to find.

The shrinking glacier in the Jayawijaya mountains is believed responsible for reducing the snow mice population. In 1972, the glacier was 6.9 square kilometers, but it was only 3.6 square kilometers in 1993.

The 1993 study spotted no Tasmanian tigers but found their footprints around the glaciers.

Kalelago said PT Freeport Indonesia's local mining was causing most of the melting of the Jayawijaya glacier.

WWF representative Rom Liley said Tasmanian tigers, also called Tasmanian wolves, were common in Irian Jaya and Australia between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago.

A Tasmanian tiger was caught here near the glacier in 1933 and transferred to Bonaris National Park in Tasmania, where it died three years later.

Liley said he believed Tasmanian tigers still existed in Jayawijaya because Baliem Valley residents had recently reported wolf attacks on their cattle. (pan)