During the Vietnam and Korean wars soldiers became the victims of tigers who had acquired a taste for human flesh in this way.

• Lack of food.

Villagers kill off deer or pigs in the surrounding forest, not wanting them to compete for grazing with domestic stock; this leaves scant prey for the tiger.

Things are even worse if the villagers are not stockmen. Usually, tigers turn to domestic stock as a secondary form of prey, if their preferred food source is diminished.

• Mistaken identity.

 Tests have shown that a tiger will stalk a group of people bending over to cut grass; possibly the angle of the person causes a tiger to mistake them for some type of animal. As soon as the people stand upright tigers seem to lose all interest. Perhaps this means some attacks are a simple case of mistaken identity.

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