Russia's wildlife specialists are combing the Far Eastern tundra to trap an Amur tiger which has begun hunting reindeer and dogs, the country's environmental watchdog Rosprirodnadzor has said.
Earlier this month, the adult male Amur tiger was reported prowling in the vicinity of the Mayak village in the Khabarovsk Territory's Nikolayevsky district.
"Since it began freezing, it has come near the urban area, feeding on fish scraps. It has also hunted reindeer. Later, it started entering the village hunting dogs," the Rosprirodnadzor's press service said in a statement.
The watchdog said it had permitted the entrapment of the tiger to prevent it from causing harm to the local residents.
Rosprirodnadzor's spokesman Vasily Bogoslovsky said it was ineffective to scare the animal away as "tundra and open forest, which is not the common habitat for [the Amur tiger], are around."
Once it is trapped, the tiger will be removed to its natural habitat within the Khabarovsk Territory, he said.
The spokesman said another adult male Amur tiger had been trapped in the country's Primorsky Territory earlier in the month. The animal was reportedly attacking cars on the Vladivostok-Khabarovsk highway. It was later diagnosed with rabies.
Amur tigers, also known as Siberian tigers, are classed as endangered by the World Conservation Union, with only about 500 tigers left in Russia's wild. Since 2006, poachers have killed at least 10 of the rare animals in Russia's Far East.
MOSCOW, February 15 (RIA Novosti)
