Javan tigers were very small compared to other subspecies of the Asian mainland, but larger in size than Bali tigers. They usually had long and thin stripes, which were slightly more numerous than those of the Sumatran tiger. Their nose was long and narrow, occipital plane remarkably narrow and carnassials relatively long. Based on these cranial differences, the Javan tiger was proposed to be assigned to a distinct species, Panthera sondaica.
Males had a mean body length of 248 cm and weighed between 100 and 141 kg. Females were smaller than males and weighed between 75 and 115 kg.
The smaller body size of Javan tigers is attributed to Bergmann’s rule and the size of the available prey species in Java, which are smaller than the cervid and bovid species distributed on the Asian mainland. However, the diameter of their tracks are larger than of Bengal tiger in Bangladesh, India and Nepal
