Conservationists Fauna and Flora International was to send a team to Pursat province today to investigate a man’s claim that he was attacked by a tiger.

Ngem Nget, a 51-year-old farmer in Phnom Kravanh district’s Santre commune, reported that while foraging in the Cardamom Mountains on Sunday, a tiger attacked him, leaving him with wounds to his head, arms and legs. His nephew chased the animal away with a machete, he said.

“The report from the victim and local authorities … of a tiger attacking a man calls for an investigation to be launched immediately,” FFI country director Tuy Serei-vathana said yesterday.

The last image of a tiger in Cambodia was caught in 2007 by a Flora and Fauna-installed camera in Mondulkiri province. The last physical evidence of a tiger here was found in 2010.

Based on the description and location of the alleged tiger sighting, Sereivathana yesterday said he believes a different animal attacked Nget.