An endangered Siberian tiger has killed a man in Russia’s Far Eastern region of Khabarovsk, law enforcement officials said Monday.
According to the local branch of Russia’s Investigative Committee, a wild Siberian tiger — also known as an Amur tiger — attacked the unidentified man near the village of Obor, which has a population of about 500 people.
The Amur Tiger Center, a non-profit organization that monitors the population of the endangered tiger species, said the animal had wandered into Obor on Sunday and killed the man’s dog.
He then followed the Siberian tiger into a nearby forest, where other residents later found his body along with the remains of his dog.
Authorities in the Khabarovsk region have reported nearly 300 cases of tigers entering populated areas this year, and in some instances, the wild animals have killed dogs and attacked people.
Experts say that an uptick in encounters between humans and Siberian tigers could indicate “serious disruptions” in their habitats.
“In my view, [increased tiger attacks are] associated with the destruction of the predator’s habitats due to logging, excessive hunting of [the tiger’s prey] and African swine fever, which has decimated the remaining wild boar population,” zoologist Sergei Kolchin told the environmental news outlet Kedr
In August, residents in the Khabarovsk region asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to help ensure better protection against Siberian tigers.
Putin has for years been a vocal advocate of protecting the endangered tiger species, and in 2013 he created a foundation for their conservation.
