BEASTS TO BE FEARED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20454, 4 January 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

BEASTS TO BE FEARED.

TALES OF EVIL TIGERS.

FOURTEEN VICTIMS IN A YEAR

The tiger which has reached the London Zoo from Sumatra with the evil reputation of having killed and eaten several men differs from most man-eaters, write:; Mr. Oscar Lloyd in the Daily Mail. This tiger is full-grown, healthy, and in the prime of life. As a. rule a- tiger which preys upon the weakling, man, is old, crippled, or diseased. The Malayan tiger, whether in the Malay Peninsula or the East Indian Islands of Java, or Sumatra, is far commoner than is usually recognised. Occasionally tigers visit Singapore, swimming the straits from Johore. In one week five tigers were killed upon one rubber estate in Upper Perak, and fifteen in the same district in three weeks. They are shy and cunning, and inhabit the trackless foothills where few men go. This man-eater has killed, it is said, several natives. It migh£ be worse. A famous mainland man-eater, the " Taiping Tiger," which ranged from Taiping to Kuala Kangsar, was credited with fourteen victims in a y«ar. In one case he dragged a Malay woman through the side of a hut within a stone's throw of the European rest house. Another victim was the fourteenth of a, row of sleeping coolies. Many tempting baits were laid for the Taiping tiger. Hunters waited all night beside tethered beasts, but. no tiger came. Once a police inspector hid in a tree watching an ox on the edge of the jungle, hoping for the tiger's advent. Dawn came; the Englishman put up his rifle; a native came out with a bundle of hay to feed the ox. Then the tigfir sprang, and carried off the'man.

The beast's end came after a year of death-dealing, but whether a tiger found dead beside a poisoned kill or one shot bv a famous Australian hunter was the man-eater is uncertain. More fitting was the end of the second tiger, shot within a hundred, yards of a. main road at Matang. The writer says she measured him next morning—eight feet six from tail to. nose! This tiger had a growth at the base of the nostril which affected his breathing, perhaps his brain, so there is a great likelihood that he was the " Taiping Tiger." The Malays regard the tiger with an almost superstitious reverence. If you speak lightly of a tiger they check the scoffer at once. " The tiger will know, and seek revenge," they say.