February 10, 2009

Bomb The Tigers?

Indonesian authorities are setting off blasts and may use traps to stop tigers terrorizing a forest village in West Sumatra, provincial conservation agency head Indra Arinal said. What could be the results?

Three endangered Sumatran tigers have been devouring livestock in the village of Halaban since last week.

The agency is trying to scare off the animals by setting off explosions in gunpowder-filled metal pipes, but may have to resort to trapping them, Mr. Arinal said. Will humans and other animals be injured by such actions?

“If the tigers keep creating conflict to the village, then we have to use traps and relocate them,” he said.

Two women were trampled to death by a pair of elephants in Aceh province in January 2009, after the animals entered an illegally cleared field from nearby jungle.

Such conflicts are a rising problem in Indonesia – which has some of the world’s largest remaining tropical forests – as human settlements encroach on natural habitats.

A man was also reportedly killed by two tigers on Sumatra island last month.

There are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, according to environmental group WWF, quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Network.

But will setting off explosions bring unwanted consequences to the human’s actions? More than tigers live in the bush. Could they flush out some Orang Pendeks? What impact does this have on the local cryptids?

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

Filed under Breaking News, CryptoZoo News, Weird Animal News