Rescuers have saved five men trapped in trees by Sumatran tigers for five days after the animals mauled a companion to death.
Police said three animal tamers managed to drive the tigers away before the men were brought down in Indonesia’s protected Mount Leuser National Park in Tamiang, an Aceh district neighbouring with North Sumatra province.
The men were looking for rare agarwood used to make incense and perfume and reportedly accidently caught a tiger cub in a trap they were using to catch deer for food. The incident caused five other tigers in the area to attack them. One was mauled to death, while the five others managed to climb into trees.
The rescue team needed three days to reach the rugged area. The 28-year-old man who was killed had managed to climb a tree, “but the branch broke, causing him to fall to the ground,” a police spokesman said.
There were seven tigers wandering around the trees but four left before the rescuers arrived. The rescue team of soldiers, policemen and conservationists was sent after villagers failed to reach the men because of the tigers.
Besides Sumatran tigers, Leuser park is home to other protected animals, including orang-utans, elephants, rhinos and leopards.
Sumatran tigers are the most critically endangered tiger subspecies. About 400 remain, down from 1,000 in the 1970s, because of forest destruction and poaching.