NAKHON RATCHASIMA — A 15-year-old male gaur was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds in Khao Paeng Ma mountain adjacent to the Khao Yai National Park.
Villagers discovered the carcass in a dried-up brook near Moo 18 village of tambon Wang Nam Khieu on Monday afternoon and alerted police who inspected the slain animal Tuesday.
The shooting followed Sunday's discovery of another gaur found shot dead in a Ratchaburi national park.
Pol Lt Narapob Nuantao, of Wang Nam Khieu police station, said an initial examination found nine shotgun pellets embedded in several locations on the gaur's body and neck. The animal was likely shot by a poacher elsewhere and ran injured to the spot where it died. Therefore, police could not tell yet if the hunter lived in the Khao Paeng Ma area or not, as well as where the shooting took place, Pol Lt Narapob said.
The gaur was thought to weigh about 400 kilogrammes and had been dead for three days. Officials from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation will bury the animal after a veterinarian team finished removing the pellets from its body.
Pol Lt Narapob pledged to quickly find the poacher who killed the gaur. Gaurs are on the protected species list under Thai law.