Endangered tiger kills 2 loggers in west Indonesia

By ZAKKI HAKIM
The Associated Press

Sunday, February 22, 2009

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A Sumatran tiger mauled two illegal loggers to death in western Indonesia, bringing to five the number of people killed by the critically endangered cats in less than a month, a conservationist said Sunday.

The tiger attacked a 50-year-old man and his 18-year-old son early Saturday while they slept next to a pile of stolen wood in a protected forest on Sumatra island, about 375 miles (600 kilometers) west of Jakarta, said Didy Wurdjanto of the state conservation agency.

Three people were killed in two separate attacks in late January in the same area. Park rangers last week trapped an adult tigress believed responsible for those deaths and it was being relocated.

The Sumatran tiger is the world's most critically endangered tiger subspecies. Only about 250 are left in the wild, the Forestry Ministry said, compared to about 1,000 in the 1970s.

The tigers' diminishing population is blamed largely on poaching and the destruction of their forest habitat for palm oil and wood pulp plantations.

In some cases the animals roam into villages or plantations in search of food, setting the stage for a conflict with humans.

In the latest attack, however, the animal had not strayed from its habitat so there will be no effort to catch and relocate it, Wurdjanto said. "This time it was the loggers' fault," he said.

About 40 people were killed by tigers on Sumatra in 2000-2004, according to the state conservation agency, which said the trend has continued since then. New figures are to be released in April..

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Nice Kitty..!!

BAD loggers...!!

If it takes two of them to fill up a tiger, what scrawny little fellows those Sumatran loggers must be.
You never hear of no tigers eatin' any loggers where I live!

Yes , NY loggers are tough !
Sadly Indonesia has become a center for distribution of illegally harvested wood. Let the tigers take a bite out of crime !!

The second man was probably killed trying to rescue the first. The tiger would likely carry off one victim to a place it felt comfortable to feed-- that's my SWAG after reading Corbett over and over.