Environmental NGOs said Thursday that one of the country’s most notorious tiger hunters has been arrested, accused of transporting animal parts from Pursat province to Koh Kong province last month.
Yor Ngon, 57, was arrested in the southern Cardamom mountains’ protected forest on Mar 28 while driving a motorbike loaded with meat, bear claws, animal teeth and bones, WildAid deputy country Director Delphine Vann Roe said Thursday.
It was unclear Thursday whether he had been charged with a crime though he is being held at the Koh Kong provincial prison, Vann Roe said.
Hunter Weiler, country director for wildlife conservation NGO Cat Action Treasury, said Yor Ngon is a professional hunter who is well-known to conservation agencies.
A 1999 CAT survey of hunters in the country found that most of them were farmers and hunted part-time near their villages. But Yor Ngon was a professional who has been hunting for more than 20 years, Weiler said.
When interviewed for the survey, Yor Ngon told CAT he had killed 20 tigers, though Weiler said he had been heard saying he’s killed as many as 60. “This isn’t just another hunter,” he said Thursday. “This is possibly the most notorious and dangerous hunter in Cambodia.”
At that time, Weiler said, CAT did not have the resources or jurisdiction to make arrests, and when he was seen in Prey Veng province several years ago, he alluded capture.
The provincial governor issued a warrant for his arrest and rangers scoured the province for a month, but Yor Ngon managed to escape, Weiler said. He reappeared several times and was actually taken into custody in August.
At the time, however, he did not have any contraband, Weiler said. Yor Ngon was forced to sign a contract stating he would not hunt anymore.
Estimates put the number of tigers still alive in Cambodia at less than 100, Weiler said, with small groups in the Cardamom mountains and in Ratanakkiri, Mondolkiri and Preah Vihear provinces.
