Portugal Colonial - Rangers hunt endangered Indonesian tigers after deadly attacks

Four people were attacked while farming inside the protected reserves of a national park in Lampung Province on Sumatra island in recent weeks and officials vowed to capture the big cats responsible.

"We suspect there is more than one tiger terrorising the villagers," said Sugeng Hari Kinaryo Adi, a ranger at the Bukit Barisan National Park.

Sumatran tigers -- targeted by poachers for their body parts -- are considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with fewer than 400 believed to remain in the wild.

They are also afflicted by increasing conflict with humans, and rampant deforestation that has reduced their natural habitat.

The incidents took place between late February and March 11, leaving a 28-year-old and a 47-year-old dead from their injuries, said Sugeng.

A team of 10 including the animal whisperer, a vet and forest rangers has set off for the search. There was no indication the attacks were by the same tiger.

"We will start moving today, making a trap and also mapping the route where the tiger could pass by," Dito, the vet involved in the hunt who only gave one name, told AFP.

"We hope the villagers can stay away from the area where the tiger usually passes by so there will be no more victims."

After the latest attack on Monday, in which a tiger injured a farmer, hundreds of angry villagers mobbed and torched the forest rangers' headquarters inside the national park on Monday, and demanded the rangers to catch the tigers.

"They also damaged some facilities belonging to the resort because they are upset that the tiger is still on the loose," said Sugeng.

V.Fontes--PC