A tiger carcass has been discovered floating in a river in Kelantan, Malaysia on Jun. 28, 2024, prompting an investigation by local authorities, the New Straits Times reported.

Kelantan Wildlife and National Parks director Mohamad Hafid Rohani stated that villagers discovered the carcass floating in Sungai Dabong, Kuala Krai, as they passed through the area.

Hafid added that a ranger team was deployed to the scene to investigate the incident.

Videos and photos uploaded by user thirtyoneyea to X (formerly known as Twitter) on Jun. 29 appear to show the tiger being pulled out of the river:

The carcass was sent to the National Wildlife Rescue Centre in Sungkai, Perak for an autopsy.

Critically endangered subspecies

Malayan tigers are a critically endangered subspecies. They are also the national animal of Malaysia, appearing on Malaysia's coat of arms.

According to an article by the South China Morning Post, Malayan tigers numbered less than 200 in the jungles of Peninsular Malaysia according to a study done in August 2023.

SCMP pointed out that the tigers' habitats are diminishing due to logging and a mining boom.

Kelantan has also seen numerous tiger attacks, with SCMP reporting a spate of four such attacks that took place in 2023 alone.

Back in 2022, a Malayan tiger was shot dead by officials from the Kelantan Department of Wildlife and National Parks, after it killed a 59-year-old indigenous man.

An opinion piece published in 2022 by Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of WWF-Malaysia Sophia Lim argued that pressures from habitat loss, alongside poaching and retaliatory killings, forced the tigers to be defensive, resulting in the attacks.

A group of poachers were arrested by officials from the Department Wildlife and National Parks in Kelantan on Jun. 29, 2024, the New Straits Times reported.

Shockingly, they were found to have been carrying a complete skeleton and bones of a tiger.

Top photo via social media