Sumatran tiger on the loose, believed to have killed man in Indonesia
A man working on an Indonesian plantation last week was reportedly killed by a wild Sumatran tiger, according to reports. The tiger is still on the loose.
The hunt is underway for a Sumatran tiger believed to have attacked a man in western Indonesia, killing him.
The victim was identified by CBS News as being 26 years old. He was found dead at a plantation in the Riau province on Sumatra island on Thursday afternoon with a missing right hand and bite wounds on his neck.
Local authorities received a notification from two workers that their friend was screaming, and that, when they searched for him, all they saw were tiger tracks, CBS reported.
"Our team has left this morning (to search for the tiger). Based on the report, the area is within the tiger habitat," local conservation agency head Genman Suhefti Hasibuan told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Saturday.
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AFP reported there are about several hundred wild tigers left on the western island of Sumatra due to being targeted by poachers and deforestation of their habitat for oil palm plantations.
Sumatran tigers are carnivorous mammals whose life span in the wild is about 15 years, according to National Geographic. They can be as large as eight feet, and weight as much as 260 pounds.
Last week's tiger attack is one of three fatal incidents in the past five months, according to CBS News. A Siberian tiger reportedly attacked a dog and killed its owner in Russia in December. Last month, a man was killed by tigers at a zoo in Pakistan.
Four farmers in Indonesia's Aceh province were attacked by tigers in two separate incidents back in February, CBS reported.