Tiger killed gaur found dead in Mae Wong National Park

Tiger killed gaur found dead in Mae Wong National Park

A male Bengal tiger, left, approaches the carcass of a female gaur it killed in Mae Wong National Park. The dead gaur was found on Sunday. (Photo from a camera trap)
A male Bengal tiger, left, approaches the carcass of a female gaur it killed in Mae Wong National Park. The dead gaur was found on Sunday. (Photo from a camera trap)

NAKHON SAWAN: A female gaur found dead inside Mae Wong National Park was killed by a male Bengal tiger that had migrated from Huai Kha Khaeng Wilife Sanctuary, the Mae Wong park chief said on Tuesday.

The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation posted a photo of the dead gaur on its Facebook page on Sunday afternoon.

It had severe bite wounds to the neck and claw marks along the body and was found dead in the forest between Mae Wong district in Nakhon Sawan and Kamphaeng Phet’s Khlong Lan district, inside the national park.

Kitiphat Tharaphibarn, head of Mae Wong National Park, told the Bangkok Post the gaur had been killed by a male Bengal tiger, not human hunters as earlier suspected.

Evidence confirming this included tiger tracks around the carcass. Camera traps showed a male tiger in the area on Sunday and Monday. It had fed on the gaur's carcass. 

The same tiger was earlier spotted by researchers inside Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in 2013.

The animal had been in Mae Wong National Park since mid-2014,  according to the research team.

The tiger's successful hunt showed that Mae Wong National Park played a vital role in sustaining the  population of tigers based in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, Mr Kitiphat said.

It was planned to capture this tiger and fit him with a radio collar to enable more accurate, continuous  data-gathering about the Bengal tiger population in the area.

This would be used to draw up an efficient conservation plan, the Mae Wong National Park chief said.

A video clip posted by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, shows the Bengal tiger returning to eat the carcass of the gaur it earlier killed.

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