Five people have been arrested on suspicion of Tiger poaching in the Pelalawan Regency of Riau Province, Sumatra on Saturday 7 December 2019. Three people were initially arrested in a raid in Teluk Binjai village by personnel from the Environment and Forestry Ministry and the National Police, following a tip off they were trying to sell a Tiger skin. The three were found to be in possession of both the skin of a female Tiger, and a jar containing four Tiger foetuses; it is not clear if they come from the same animal. The three gave the names of two further people who were later arrested in Pangkalan Lesung subdistrict. It is thought that all of these individuals were part of a ring of poachers and smugglers that had targeted Tigers on several parts of the island of Sumatra.
Tiger body parts seized in a raid by authorities in Sumatra this week. AFP.
The Sumatran Tiger, Panthera tigris sondaica, is considered to be Critically Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, with less than 400 individuals surviving on the island of Sumatra; the subspecies was formerly also found on Java and Borneo, but is thought to be extinct there. Sumatran Tigers are threatened by habitat loos and poaching, with poaching thought to be resulting in the loss of about 40 animals per year.
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