The animal started feeding on people, has made two victims thus far

Dec 4, 2012 15:20 GMT  ·  By

The villagers presently residing in Thailand's Yala province are now trying to figure out a way to either chase away, or catch and kill a tiger that recently got into the habit of feeding on people.

This killer big cat has supposedly made two victims thus far, one of whom was a 43-year-old woman killed just last night while working with her husband on a rubber plantation.

The tiger's other victim was a 44-year-old man whose body was found about a week ago.

Whereas the woman's husband kept the big cat from mutilating her body by watching over her from a tree all night long, the man who was attacked last week was not this fortunate.

Thus, when his corpse was found, it was discovered that the tiger decapitated him, and his body displayed rather deep claw marks. Sources say that villagers found two sets of paw prints next to this male victim, one smaller and one bigger, which is why some might argue that the tiger is in fact a female who had to hunt in order to feed its cub.

As the World Wildlife Fund showed at one point, clashes between rural communities and the big cats belonging to this species are to become ever more frequent, mainly due to the fact that the expansion of human society translates into the tigers' losing their usual hunting grounds.

Faced with the possibility of either starving or starting to hunt humans, some tigers end up choosing the latter.

For the time being, as many as 200 villagers, together with armed forces, are out looking for the tiger. Their primary goal is not that of slaying the cat, but that of forcing it to retreat deep into the forest.

However, there are some who believe that, now that the tiger knows that humans are quite an easy prey, it will sooner or later return and end up making more victims.