Miscellanea Zoologica Hungarica 11. 1997 (Budapest, 1997)

Buzás, B.; Farkas, B.: An additional skull of the Bali tiger, Panthera tigris balica (Schwarz) in the Hungarian Natural History Museum

An additional skull of the Bali tiger 103 In accordance with what was written by Vojnich (1913), HNHM 4250.17 is damaged to a great extent (Fig. 2). Portions of the nasals are missing, the right being somewhat more intact. Their overall shape — as much as it can be reconstructed — agrees with that in Panthern tigris sondaica (Temminck, 1845), as illustrated by Hemmer (1969). Whereas balica had long been accepted as a bona subspecies (e.g. Pocock 1929, Sody 1932, Brongersma 1935), the similarity in the shape of the nasals caused Hemmer (1969) to question its validity, and to synonymize it with sondaica — a view generally not adopted by subsequent workers. The left frontal is also considerably damaged: three holes enter the skull, and one large, irregularly shaped cavity opens into the orbital fossa. All canines have been removed — probably by the hunter himself as a trophy —, and also one lower and four upper incisors are missing. The second upper premolars are greatly reduced in size, which is a characteristic feature of the subspecies balica (Mazák et al. 1978). Vojnich (1913) provided the following measurements for the Gondol tiger: total length, 245 cm; body length, 174 cm; tail length, 71.5 cm; height at shoulder, 90 cm; girth around the foreleg, 37 cm; girth around the head in front of the ears, 69 cm. Our measurements of the skull are as follows (Fig. 3; lower case characters in parentheses correspond with those shown in the illustration): maximum length (a), 312 mm; condylobasal length (b), 279 mm; basal length (c), 258 mm; rostral width (d), 79 mm; interorbital width (e), 66 mm; postorbital width (f), 59 mm; bizygomatic width (g), 218 mm; mastoidal width (h), 117.5 mm; supraoccipital width (i), 55 mm; maximum length of nasals (j), 111 mm; mandible length (k), 210 mm; length of Pm

4 (1), 34.5 mm/35 mm; length of M' (m), 25.5 mm/26 mm; alveolar length C-Pm

4 (n), 94 mm; alveolar length C-M' (o), 112 mm. Apparently, HNHM 4250.17 is the largest Bali tiger cranium available, which can easily be explained by the fact that most (= six) other known skulls are of females. It was long believed that balica is the smallest of all tiger subspecies (e.g. Mazák 1976), and Mazák et al. (1978) even suggested that inaccurate measuring of a skin obtained in the vicinity of Sumbar Kima by its original collector, now in the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense (MZB 6834) was to blame for the inflated head-and-body length (1770 mm) calculated by these authors. Considering the size of the skull, and the total length recorded by Vojnich (1913) for the Gondol tiger, however, we have surprisingly matching data. Crania of Panthera tigris sondaica in the Leiden Nationaal Natuurhistorisch Museum (formerly Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie) measured by Brongersma (1935) range from 252.5 to 284.0 mm condylobasal, and 282.5 to 321.0 mm maximum length (sexes not distinguished), whereas those of two male P. t. balica in the Natural History Museum (formerly British Museum of Natural History), London (cf. Mazák et al. 1978), and the one described herein range from 266.5 to 279.0 mm condylobasal, and 295.0 to 312.0 mm maximum length. Tanjung (= Bay) or Gunung (= Mount) Gondol is a new locality record (cf. Brink 1980), well within the presumed former distribution of Panthera tigris balica in western Bali, at approximately 60 km airline East of Pura Pulaki (cited by Mazák [1976]). Acknowledgements We are indebted to Gábor Csorba for allowing us to examine and describe the Bali tiger skull under his care. He and György Topái read the manuscript, Péter Újhelyi helped with measurements, the late Hajnalka Mátrai prepared the line drawing, Qemal Bistrica improved the English text considerably, and Lang Xing set fire. Thank you to all.