IPOH: The tiger trapped by a group of orang asli in Sungkai last week died an excruciatingly slow and painful death — so painful that Perak Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) director Shabrina Shariff wept when she saw the body.
Cruel death: The tiger lying dead with gunshot and blow pipe wounds within 100m from where it attacked the orang asli at the Bukit Tapah Forest Reserve in Sungkai. Its detached left forelimb was still caught in the snare.The tiger was bloodied — it had taken five bullets, two of them in its eyes. It had spear wounds all over, with the poison from the spears slowly killing it. Its flesh was torn by the wire snare and its left forelimb had been torn off.
Shabrina said she could not imagine the pain the four-year-old male tiger would have gone through since last Tuesday, the first day its limb was caught in a snare.
The carcass was found by Perhilitan officers five days later on Sunday with its left forelimb detached and the bloodied body riddled with gunshot wounds.
“But I am very sure that the pain and trauma it suffered before it died would have been excruciating,” said Shabrina.
“We extracted five bullets from its body, limb and both eyes. Its flesh was badly torn by the wire snare and spears the poachers had jabbed it with,” she said.
Shabrina said it had also been poisoned as the spears used by the orang asli were laced with sap from the Ipoh Tree.
Shabrina said that it was impossible for the tiger, which had been injured so severely, to survive.
“It is one of the worst poaching cases I have seen.
“It was a really handsome and big cat, weighing some 120kg and measuring 1.5m to 1.8m long.
“It had very beautiful fur but sadly, we were unable to restore and preserve its skin due to the extent of the injuries.
“All that we could salvage was its bones, which we will assemble later for display,” she said, adding that for the time being, the tiger was buried at the Wildlife Conservation Centre in Sungkai.
Orang asli Yok Meneh had last Saturday claimed that he was attacked by the tiger while on his way to gather petai at the Bukit Tapah Forest Reserve.
However, it was later found that he had been attacked while trying to kill the tiger, which was caught in a snare set by other orang asli.
Shabrina said the orang asli claimed that they hunted tiger for its meat which was considered an aphrodisiac.
“But I believe that they could be involved in selling tiger parts to middlemen.”
Dept: Orang asli was trying to kill tiger, not collect petai
Chan Li Leen, The Star 8 Feb 10;
IPOH: The tiger which attacked an orang asli in Sungkai last week did so in retaliation as it had been wounded in a trap laid out by his friends.
Perak Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) officers found in their investigation that Yok Meneh, 47, and another orang asli had entered the jungle on Thursday to kill the tiger which was caught in a snare.
“The victim was not there to collect petai. There were no petai trees there,” its director Shabrina Shariff said.
“He and the other man had gone there with spears made from the bemban tree to kill the animal. They were attacked by the injured tiger which had freed itself from the snare,” she said.
Yok Meneh, who suffered a deep 15.2cm wound on his back and other injuries to his hands and legs from fighting the tiger, told the authorities on Saturday that he was attacked while on his way to gather petai at the Bukit Tapah Forest Reserve.
The next day, Perhilitan officers found the carcass of the tiger about 20m from the site. Its detached left forelimb was still caught in the snare.
According to Shabrina, the orang asli had set up the snare on Jan 25 and the tiger was caught in it on Feb 2.
“On Feb 3, the one responsible for setting up the trap went into the jungle with four other orang asli with shotguns to shoot the tiger.
“They managed to hit the animal in the eye, leg and body and left it to die.On Feb 4, Yok Meneh and another orang asli tried to retrieve the carcass but the tiger was still alive and attacked them,” she said.
After interrogating the orang asli, it was discovered that they had captured and killed other protected animals before.
”One of them admitted that they killed another tiger and a panther before this,” Shabrina said.