Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) – Riau Natural Resources Conservation Office (BBKSDA) personnel evacuated a Sumatran tiger trapped in the Pulau Burung market area in Indragiri Hilir, Riau Province, to the Dharmasraya Sumatran Tiger Rehabilitation Center (PRHS) in West Sumatra Province. “We will observe the tiger in cooperation with the Arsari Foundation of the Dharmasraya PHRS, Suharyono, head of the Riau BBKSDA, stated here, Saturday. Riau has no tiger rehabilitation center, so the animal was moved to the neighboring province, he explained. The three-year-old male tiger was found trapped and in a wounded state in the Pulau Burung market area on November 14, 2018. After being rehabilitated, the tiger will be released into the wild. Bonita, a four-year-old tigress, who had killed three residents of Indragiri Hilir, is also being kept in the West Sumatra rehabilitation center. The Sumatran tiger, or panthera tigris sumatrea, an endemic animal of Sumatra, is protected by law, as the animal is on the brink of extinction. Its population is estimated at some 400 in the wild, and one-third of them are in Riau Province, Sumatra Island. In 2016, two people were jailed for four years each for trading tiger skins. The cases were handled by the Riau Police in cooperation with the local natural resources conservation offices of Riau and Jambi. In 2017, two people were also arrested and jailed for four years each for trading tiger skin and bone in Riau, while in Jambi, two people were imprisoned for eight months for the trade… [Read full story]
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