Forest authorities in Russia are scouring the frozen countryside in a frantic search to find a Siberian tiger that is preying on local dogs in a remote Siberian village.
The Amur tiger, an endangered species, was bred in captivity and then released into the wild as part of a conservation campaign that has the personal backing of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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It is not the first time a tiger released through Putin's campaign has caused consternation with local communities: In 2014, another tiger cub crossed into China and killed five chickens.
Now residents of a small village near the border with China, in Russia's eastern Primorye region, have claimed that one of the animals has been attacking dogs, then killing them and dragging away their carcasses.
Two work groups from the Department of Hunting Supervision in Primorye region as well as conservation experts are searching for the big cat, department spokesman Dmitry Pankratov said on Tuesday, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.
"It has already been confirmed that the tiger has carried away four dogs from the village," Pankratov said.
"The situation is genuinely conflicted, and that is why a decision has been made to take the tiger out of nature and determine the reasons for its behavior."
Pankratov added that the tiger's behavior had been unusual, in one instance dragging one of the dead dogs for nearly two-and-a-half miles. This has lead experts to predict that the tiger could be a female with a cub. However, this has yet to be confirmed.
