Malayan tigers face new threat: Extinction-level virus could wipe them out

The Malayan tiger, which is on the brink of extinction from poaching and loss of habitat, is now facing another danger: an epidemic of canine distemper disease. — Filepic/The Star

The three-minute long viral video of a tiger roaming – “unafraid” and “harmless” – among villagers in Mersing, Johor, in early March looked familiar to us. In many ways it was a repeat of an incident in Dungun, Terengganu, over 330km away and some six months earlier, in July 2019, which was also caught on video and went viral.

In both cases, the tigers – found close to the villages and the villagers – were disoriented and underweight.