A Siberian tiger that attacked a farmer in northeast Liaoning
Province on Jan. 16 is probably the first Siberian tiger seen in
the wild in the province in the past 300 years, the local wildlife
protection station announced Thursday.?
The 42-year-old farmer, surnamed Cao, in Xinbin Manchu
Autonomous County of Fushun City, was attacked and badly mauled by
a tiger as he was going down a hill with three other people.
His wife said a yellow beast jumped onto the path and bit his
arm. The others shouted loudly as the beast dragged him for several
meters aside and then fled. The attack lasted less than two
minutes.
The beast nearly severed the muscles from his left arm, doctors
said.
Villagers said they found unfamiliar large animal tracks in the
hills before the attack.?
The clear claw trace and white, black and yellow fur left at the
scene indicated the beast was probably a Siberian tiger, the man in
charge of the station said.
The State Forestry Bureau confirmed his words with a DNA test of
its blood on Jan. 20, adding that the beast might have a slight
injury.
However, the station also warned the public that the tiger might
have escaped from a zoo and they were checking the zoos in the
vicinity.
Siberian tigers, the largest of all tigers, live mainly in
Siberian Russia and northeast China. It is believed there are some
300 Siberian tigers left in the wild, including less than 10 in
China.
Most Siberian tigers in China live in the Lesser Hinggan
Mountains in Heilongjiang Province and Changbai Mountain in Jilin
Province. The World Wide Fund for Nature has included Siberian
tigers in its list of the world's 10 most endangered animals.
(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2004)