Tiger eats three goats

BOGOR (JP): A tiger has eaten three goats over the past five weeks in Pulasari village, adjacent to the Ciaten tea plantation in the Leuwiliang subdistrict, Bogor, a village resident said.

Icang, head of a local neighborhood, said over the weekend that the last goat was eaten in the third week of last month, while the first was eaten at the end of September.

He said all the locals had found after the goats disappeared was blood in their barn the next morning.

Tiger paw prints were found in the barn and the tea plantation.

"I measured the prints by myself and each of them was as big as my fist," he said.

"All the goats eaten by the tiger belonged to Syahril, whose barn is closest to the tea plantation," E. Chaerudin, a local religious leader, said.

Oman, another neighborhood chief, said that a resident of another village had once spotted a tiger in the area between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m.

The villager had seen the tiger's shape but could not see the stripes of its coat because it was very dark, Oman said.

Chaerudin said that employees of Taman Safari Indonesia, which manages and raises wildlife in Cisarua, Bogor, had set a trap to catch the tiger.

But since the last goat went missing not a single tiger has been caught, and the tiger bait -- a dead goat -- is now rotten.

Oman explained that in a bid to prevent the unexpected, local residents had been asked not to stray too far into the plantation and nearby forest, especially at night.

The warning was issued because most locals depend on the plantation and forest to collect wood for their cooking fires. (hhr)