Via @a_lallie_ Heartbreaking!!! On my recent #WorldWildlifeDay post, I wrote about #SumatranTigers being critically endangered and then a day later this happened 💔😢 Story below: _ A Sumatran tiger hangs, dead and disembowelled, from a ceiling in a public hall in a remote village in northern Indonesia. _ The Jakarta Post reported that superstitious villagers feared it was a “siluman” or shape-shifter, and when rangers would not kill it, they took matters into their own hands and decided to kill it themselves. “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 subdistrict 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. _ The incident occurred only a day after the United Nation’s World Wildlife Day. This year’s theme, “Big cats: predators under threat”, aimed to bring attention to big cats’ declining populations. The Sumatran tiger, is a critically endangered species, with only about 400-500 of them remaining in their natural habitats of the forests of Sumatra. The population is declining due to habitat loss from expanding oil palm plantations and poaching for the illegal trade in their body parts. _ Officials said the tiger was missing internal organs as well as its teeth, claws and some of its skin. Reuters reported the parts are sometimes sold as artefacts or used in traditional medicine. “We regret that they killed the tiger,” Sianturi told the news agency. "We will prove that its body parts are being traded". It’s not clear whether those responsible for killing the tiger will face prosecution or what the penalties would be.
