A rare Amur tiger in Russia’s far-eastern Khabarovsk region, near the border with China, has killed one of two hunters who encroached on its territory while it was eating a deer.
The hunters were attacked when they got out of their boat several metres from the tiger to look at a grove of pine nuts, wildlife conservationist Sergei Aramilev said in comments carried by state news agency RIA Novosti.
As the tiger killed one of the men, the other man fatally shot it with a firearm, said Aramilev, who heads the Amur Tiger Centre, an organisation that assists the species.
Amur tigers are a strictly protected species, and every known killing is investigated.
There is a high risk of poachers targeting such tigers for their fur, teeth, and other body parts.
There are an estimated 500 Amur tigers in the wild.
In March, a Russian farmer shot and killed an Amur tiger near the city of Khabarovsk, saying the animal attacked a cow and then himself as he tried to chase the predator out of a cowshed.
