A keeper was killed after two critically endangered Sumatra tigers escaped from a zoo on the island of Borneo.
The tigers, both about 18 months old, escaped from the Sinka Zoo after a landslide caused by days of torrential rain damaged their enclosure.
On Saturday, one of the animals was captured after being hit by a tranquilizer dart.
But the other tiger was shot to death after behaving aggressively and attempts to reassure him failed.
The 47-year-old keeper was found dead near the tiger enclosure after the animals escaped on Friday night. He had bite wounds and scratches on his body, the AFP news agency reported.
Several dead animals, including an ostrich and a monkey, had been found near the enclosure.
The escape triggered a large-scale hunt in the town of Singkawang, West Kalimantan. Nearby tourist attractions were forced to close by the police and people were told to stay at home.
And although the authorities expected to catch the two animals alive, they said they were forced to shoot one of the tigers.
“We tried first with a tranquilizer gun, but it didn’t work, so we were forced to shoot the tiger because he was already behaving very aggressively,” Sadtata Noor Adirahmanta, head of a local conservation agency, told AFP.
“We were afraid that he would escape to the nearest neighborhood,” he added. “While we try our best to catch him alive, our priority is the safety of humans.”
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A cage full of prey was prepared in an attempt to lure the remaining tiger back to the zoo at the time of feeding.
Drones were also used to try to locate the tiger in the dense forest around the zoo. “It was difficult to find them,” the local police chief told CNN Indonesia.
But the authorities managed to capture him alive after shooting him with a tranquilizer dart. The animal is now being monitored at the zoo by medical specialists.
Sumatra tigers are critically endangered, with less than 400 survivors in the wild.