JOHOR BARU, Oct 9 — The Johor Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) has clarified that information disseminated via social media on an adult tiger supposedly roaming the Air Tawar 5 area of Kota Tinggi was not true.
Johor Perhilitan director Aminuddin Jamin said checks showed that the photo accompanying the Facebook posting was actually taken in Perak, and therefore, there was no cause for alarm.
“The actual location based on the picture did not take place in Johor, but in Perak at the end of last July,” he said when contacted by the media today.
Aminuddin was responding to a Facebook posting that went viral and had prompted public concern.
In May, it was reported that a tiger had been terrorising residents in Felda Ulu Tebrau in Johor, where it mauled three cows over the course of two weeks.
The tiger’s presence in Felda Ulu Tebrau — the first confirmed sighting of the predator in almost 60 years — had settlers worried about their safety.
The Malayan tiger was once commonly found throughout the southern and central parts of the Malay peninsula.
However, fewer than 150 tigers remain today due to poaching and habitat loss.
