Residents said they initially failed to retrieve the corpse after finding it because the tiger stayed close to the victim’s remains until Tuesday evening.

“Locals complained that the tiger that attacked the man was still at the location, and they’re too scared to go near the site,” Adj. Comr. Banjar Nahor, the Buki Batu Police subprecinct chief, said on Wednesday.

He said forestry agency officials had arrived on Monday to inspect the area and found the body in “horrible condition.”

Banjar said the victim’s neck had been torn open, his right hand was missing and several organs — including the lungs, liver and a large part of the stomach — had been eaten by the tiger.

In August, an 18-year-old rubber plantation worker, Rafi, was also attacked and killed by a Sumatran tiger.

Hutomo, head of the provincial Natural Resources Conservation Agency, said Rafi had been collecting latex from a rubber tree when he was attacked in Rokan Hilir district, an area heavily deforested by forest fires.

“His parents became suspicious after they found traces of blood on the ground,” Hutomo told state news agency Antara.

“They followed the blood and found him lying on the ground with the tiger right next to him.”

The Sumatran tiger is critically endangered and its habitat continues to shrink.

Human-animal conflicts are a rising issue as people encroach on wildlife habitats in Indonesia, which has some of the world’s largest remaining forests.