Inscribed on the card base for this Lambert & Co. albumen print are the words “Road at Bukit Timah, Singapore. A Tiger Resort”. The area made accessible by a road laid by 1845 was a dense tiger-infested jungle. The felines posed little threat when the town was concentrated on the banks of the Singapore River, but as the island started to develop, and inland Singapore opened up for spice plantations, tiger habitats shrank and attacks became common. Colonial architect George Drumgoole Coleman was attacked by one while surveying the jungle and survived. The development of suburban Singapore, plus tiger-hunting clubs and trapping, led to the gradual extinction of tigers in Singapore, and the last known tiger on the island was shot in 1904.
