Jakarta Globe 23 Mar 11;
An official says a rare Sumatran tiger has been found dead in a palm oil plantation in western Indonesia.
Sartono, a local forestry police officer, says the tiger apparently had been electrocuted. Its body was discovered Wednesday in the plantation near Berbak National Park in Jambi province.
Villagers have built an electric fence around the plantation which they say is to keep out pigs.
Sumatran tigers, the world's most critically endangered tiger subspecies, are on the brink of extinction because of destruction of their forest habitat for palm oil and wood pulp plantations, poaching and clashes with humans.
The World Wildlife Fund says their numbers have dwindled to about 400 from about 1,000 in the 1970s.
Associated Press
Rare Sumatran tiger killed by electric fence
Yahoo News 25 Mar 11;
JAKARTA (AFP) – An endangered Sumatran tiger has died after brushing against an electric fence set up by Indonesian farmers, in the second such incident this year, an official said Friday.
There are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild and environmental activists say the animals are increasing coming into contact with people as a result of their natural habitat being lost due to deforestation.
The two-metre (six foot) male tiger was electrocuted on Monday in Jambi province in the centre of Sumatra, Indonesia's largest island, a provincial conservation agency chief, Trisiswo, told AFP.
He said it was the second time this year a tiger had died as a result of the electric fences installed by locals to protect palm oil plantations.
"The tiger's body was partly charred but unlike the first incident, the body was still intact," he said. Locals had sold some of the body parts of the tiger that was killed last month.
Trisiswo said people in the village of Air Laut Hitam village had encircled their palm oil plantations with the high-voltage electric wires to keep out wild animals and had refused to abide by local rules banning the practice.
"We reported the case to local police to act firmly against them and we'll cooperate with local administration to stop this dangerous practice," he said.
