According to Miller and Spoolman (2012), human activities are decreasing biodiversity by causing the extinction of many species and by destroying or degrading habitats needed for the development of new species. Yet it seems that the former deserves an extra attention compared to the latter. It is important to highlight that speciation, the natural selection-based splitting of an existing species into many new ones, is impossible should such species ?cease to exist? once they fail to move or adapt to the changing environmental conditions. Before this happens, the species was called endemic, meaning that it could only be found in one area, making it highly susceptible to extinction. During most of history, extinction used to happen at a very low rate of 5 species per one million, but not anymore. Speciation still occur, though evidence shows that 25-95% of all species are already gone, and that its rate is nowadays faster than ever due to human?s impact.

One of the most interesting example of such endemic species in Indonesia would be the Sumatran Tiger (panthera tigris sumatrae). Categorized as ?Critically Endangered? by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) ?red list? since 1996, this distinguishable subspecies? population has been left from 1,000 in 1980s to only 400 today, and decreasing yearly by up to 5.9%. Most of them live in national parks and natural reserves in Sumatra Island, as experts believe it is a result of rising sea level (Kasnoff, 2015). Apart from habitat loss in tropical evergreen forest or peat swamps due to palm oil and Acacia plantations, protected areas fragmentation, and conflict with humans including poaching, the biggest portion of reason for such decline, at 78%, is illegal selling of its body parts for traditional medicines and trophies to mainly domestic markets (Linkie et al., 2008). If both its self-adaptation efforts and conservation measures do not take adequate effect, its extinction is not impossible, just like its Balinese and Javan families. As one of the top predator in its ecosystem, this solitary, camouflage-driven animal is critically important in the forest?s biodiversity.

It is clear that Sumatran Tiger conservation is crucial. Yet at the same time, it is important to also see the predator-prey relationship with large animals such as wild boar, tapir, deer, or smaller ones like monkeys, birds, and fish. It is equally important to also put attention and efforts on lowering threats of extinction to its preys and maintain its population, so that stabilized and balanced ecosystem could be achieved. Moreover, although seemed to be a very rare case and may raise a tough debate, it is also possible to look deeper, if there are necessities to hunt a very few, aging tigers who are beyond its reproductive years and pose threat to existence of younger ones.