AlQa'dah 18, 1433, Oct 4, 2012, SPA -- An endangered Sumatran tiger has died while being transported by plane, dpa cited an official as saying Thursday. The big cat was being transferred Tuesday along with other animals from Aceh province to a park on Java island on a Garuda Indonesia flight, said Afan Absori, an official at the Nature Conservancy Agency in Aceh. The airline decided to return the tiger to Aceh while on a stopover in Medan because passengers complained of bad odour, Absori said. The tiger was found dead when it arrived in Aceh the same day, with blood in its nose and mouth. "We are seeking an explanation from Garuda why it happened," he said. "It was healthy when it boarded the plane." Garuda could not be reached for comment. There are fewer than 400 Sumatran tigers in the wild and their survival is threatened by deforestation and poaching, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.
