Shatin Tiger Cub mauling-China Mail

Fri, 05/29/2020 - 17:40

Reports of tigers in Hong Kong are usually from the pre-war years.

Presumably, this victim apparently a hunter with a gun could recognise the animal as a genuine tiger, and not some other type of indigenous large cat.

Transcribed text from poorly reproduced microfilmed newsprint: -

Nei Pei-fook who was mauled by a tiger more than 10 days ago near Shatin, New Territories was able to sit up yesterday at the Kwong Wah hospital where he has been under treatment. Too near to use his hunting gun, Ng grappled with the young tiger which mauled him badly and then disappeared into the undergrowth. Ng had his front teeth knocked out and flesh torn from his arms and thighs. Photo by S.Y. Wong

Date picture taken
14 Dec 1949
Author(s)

Comments

Hi nice to see this. I've spent a bit of time rummaging around the archives for HK tiger stories for a project I'm working on. There's an article from ten days before the above in the HK Sunday Telegraph that gives some more details of the attack. The tiger is described as a cub, and yet as we see, it knocked out two of Mr Nei's teeth. So I would imagine it was a hefty beast. I can't imagine the local leopard cat doing that. Another possibility would be leaopard. But there were lots of tiger reports post war -- pretty much every year into the early 50s.

https://mmis.hkpl.gov.hk/coverpage/-/coverpage/view?_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_hsf=tiger&p_r_p_-1078056564_c=QF757YsWv58KKVLdGzsErRLRIq5cnhR6&_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_o=1&_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_actual_q=%28%20%28%20allTermsMandatory%3A%28true%29%20OR+all_dc.title%3A%28tiger%29%20OR+all_dc.creator%3A%28tiger%29%20OR+all_dc.contributor%3A%28tiger%29%20OR+all_dc.subject%3A%28tiger%29%20OR+fulltext%3A%28tiger%29%20OR+all_dc.description%3A%28tiger%29%20%29%20%29&_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_sort_order=desc&_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_sort_field=dc.publicationdate_bsort&_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_filter=dc.publicationdate_dt%3A%5B1940-01-01T00%3A00%3A00Z+TO+1949-12-31T15%3A59%3A59Z%5D&_coverpage_WAR_mmisportalportlet_filter=verbatim_dc.category.category%3A%22Newspaper+and+Serial%22

1949-tiger-account.PNG
1949-tiger-account.PNG, by johnsaeki