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its allways the same: New Sumatra tiger attack kills 2 loggers March 4, 2009, 5:00pm JAKARTA (DPA) — A tiger mauled two people to death in Jambi on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, bringing to eight the number of humans killed by the endangered beasts in the province this year, an official said Tuesday. The two victims, identified as Musmuliadi, 31, and Musliadi, 30, were attacked on Sunday night while working in an illegal logging camp in a forest in Jambi province, said the head of the provincial Natural Conservation Office, Didy Wurjanto. ‘’The latest victims bring the number to eight people killed by the Sumatran tigers in Jambi since late January, while two others were injured,’’ Didy said, adding that it was not clear whether the same tiger was responsible for all the attacks. He said the latest two victims were from outside the area and had been hired to work as illegal loggers. Didy blamed the destruction of the tigers’ habitat by illegal logging and palm oil plantations for the attacks on humans. The forest has been ‘’no man’s land’’ since it was abandoned by timber companies after logging rights expired in the area, making it difficult to monitor illegal logging and palm oil plantations, he said. Direct conflicts between people and animals are occurring because human development is encroaching on the habitat of wild animals, affecting their food sources, hunting grounds and breeding areas, conservationists said. Local and international conservation groups say there are less than 400 tigers left in the wild on Sumatra. Environmentalists blame illegal hunting, which claims an estimated 50 Sumatran tigers per year, and rampant deforestation in Sumatra for the big cats’ drastic drop in population. The conservation group WWF said tigers were once widespread on the Indonesian islands of Bali and Java but those two subspecies became extinct in the 20th century. http://www.mb.com.ph/node/197685 |