The big cat descended on Changtai Village in Boli County on Monday morning, and began a vicious rampage that left one resident in the hospital.
The villager suffered bites to his left hand and multiple bone fractures during the attack, but remains in a stable condition, according to local media reports.
A local surveillance camera also captured footage of a close encounter between the tiger and another retiree in the village, who managed to escape harm by fleeing indoors.
The video, time-stamped at 6:08 a.m. on Monday, shows the man opening his front door and walking into his yard. Moments later, the figure of a large animal flashes past the front gate.
Seemingly unfazed, the man walks up to the gate, and opens it slightly so he can have a look around. But seconds later, he is sent flying as the tiger charges straight into the gate, knocking it open.
“I thought the metal gate would protect me from a tiger attack,” the man told local media. “I wasn’t scared until it pounced on the gate.”
Luckily, the tiger appeared to lose interest as soon as the man got through his front door, to his great relief. “I’m already 74 years old,” the man said. “There’s no way I could outrun a tiger.”
The first sightings of the big cat had reportedly occurred a few minutes earlier, at around 6 a.m. on Monday, with local authorities receiving reports of the incidents roughly 40 minutes later.
They immediately declared an emergency, urging local residents to shelter indoors while they hunted for the fugitive animal using infrared cameras, drones, and other tools.
However, the tiger remains at large, with officials uncertain whether it is still in the local vicinity.
A team of experts and technicians from several Chinese feline research centers have reportedly been drafted in to assist local authorities with the search.
The incident is the first recorded sighting of a Siberian tiger in Boli County — a sign of the animals’ growing reach as their numbers multiply in the region.
China has made significant efforts to prevent Siberian tigers from disappearing from its northeastern provinces in recent years, declaring the animals a protected species and creating a vast Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park.
These efforts appear to be paying off, with northeastern China’s wild Siberian tiger population reportedly increasing from around 20 in the 1990s to more than 70 today.
But that has led to a greater risk of tiger attacks. In 2021, a wild Siberian tiger menaced a community in another part of Heilongjiang province. Last year, residents in Yilan County and Hulin City, both also in Heilongjiang, reported losing livestock to a string of tiger attacks.
Siberian tigers typically avoid human contact, but they may enter a village if they are desperate for food or have lost their territory to other tigers, Yang Yi, a science writer and former zookeeper, told local media.
“Tigers are taking a risk when they enter a village, so they are likely very hungry,” Yang said. “Individuals should avoid feeding, capturing, or chasing them.”
(Header image: VCG)
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