Indonesian villagers kill endangered Sumatran tiger after mistaking it for mythological shape-shifter
A Sumatran tiger was killed near a remote village in northern Indonesia, reportedly to determine whether it was a mythological, supernatural being.
A photograph shows the lifeless animal strapped to a wooden plank, dead and disembowelled, hanging from a ceiling in a public hall with dozens of villagers in North Sumatra crowded around to see it.
It’s not certain exactly why the critically endangered animal was slain, but local media reported that at least one or two residents who had followed it to its lair feared it was“siluman” or shape-shifter.
When rangers would not kill it, they took matters into their own hands and decided to kill it themselves,The Jakarta Post reported.
“The tiger was sleeping under a resident’s stilt house when the people struck him repeatedly in the abdomen with a spear,” an official from the Batang Natal sub-district told the newspaper about the slaying.
Hotmauli Sianturi, with the Natural Resources Conservation Agency said that conservationists urged the residents not to harm it, explaining that a trap had been set to try to catch the big cat.
“We explained to the villagers that the tiger is an endangered animal ... but they didn’t like our way of handling this situation,” she said.
A photograph shows the lifeless animal strapped to a wooden plank, dead and disembowelled, hanging from a ceiling in a public hall with dozens of villagers in North Sumatra crowded around to see it.
It’s not certain exactly why the critically endangered animal was slain, but local media reported that at least one or two residents who had followed it to its lair feared it was“siluman” or shape-shifter.
When rangers would not kill it, they took matters into their own hands and decided to kill it themselves,The Jakarta Post reported.
“The tiger was sleeping under a resident’s stilt house when the people struck him repeatedly in the abdomen with a spear,” an official from the Batang Natal sub-district told the newspaper about the slaying.
Hotmauli Sianturi, with the Natural Resources Conservation Agency said that conservationists urged the residents not to harm it, explaining that a trap had been set to try to catch the big cat.
“We explained to the villagers that the tiger is an endangered animal ... but they didn’t like our way of handling this situation,” she said.
Source: latimes
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