JAKARTA, Oct 20 (NNN-ANTARA) – A critically endangered Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), has been found alive in a wire trap, in Gayo Lues district’s forest, in the Indonesian province of Aceh, authorities said on Monday.
The Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency’s head, Agus Arianto, said that, the agency, with the help of local police, rescued the tiger on Sunday morning, after receiving reports from the Tongra forest management resort (RPH) in the district, on Saturday afternoon.
The carnivore was an approximately three-year-old female and weighed up to 50 kg, Arianto said, adding that, the critically endangered species was injured lightly by the trap.
“The tiger is currently under a recovery process. Once it is fully recovered, the tiger will be released into the forest,” he said, in the province’s capital of Banda Aceh.
He added that the recovery process would take up to three days.
The Sumatran tiger, the only surviving species of the Sunda Islands tigers, once including the now-extinct Bali tiger and Javanese tiger, has been listed as a critically endangered animal in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List since 2008.
An estimate from the Environment and Forestry Ministry puts the wild Sumatran tiger population at no more than 600, as of Dec, 2018, due to a loss of habitat and poaching.– NNN-ANTARA
