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THE TIGERS OF TRENGGANU of adult Frontispiece Head male tiger THE TIGERS OF TRENGGANU by LIEUT-COL. A. LOCKE Malayan Civil Service With a Foreword by the Right Honourable Malcolm MacDondd, Commissioner-General for the United Kingdom in South-East Asia. London MUSEUM PRESS LIMITED First published in 195* WONTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY BBENBZER BAYUS AND SON, LTD., THE TRINTTY PRESS, WORCESTER, AND LONDON "Unless I can make you believe that there is something practically supernatural about tigers, that they are not just common flesh and bone and striped hide, but a kind of symbol of the jungle, of the cunning and the cruelty and ferocity and incredible strength and beauty of raw nature . .there is no use in your going on with this tale/* 9 Edison Marshall in "Shikar and Safari' ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I am grateful for the encouragement and help which friends have given me while I have been writing this book. The advice Mrs. B. of Lumsden Milne, M.B.E., and Mrs. J. M. Elliott was invaluable when I was struggling with the arrangement of the written material. J. K. Creer, Esq., O.B.E., M.C.S., was good enough to read through the final manuscript and to suggest several alterations to it. I was also fortunate enough to obtain expert assistance from Major Raymond Thomas, ofthe Royal Photographic Society, in preparing the illustrations. I must also express appreciation of the co-operation which I received from G. R. Leonard, Esq., M.B.E., and J. A. HMop, Esq. M.C., both of the Federation of Malaya Game Department 1 and from Dato' Syed Abdul Kadir bin Mohamed, Mentri Besar of Johore, who obtained permission for me to examine the records of tigers shot by His Highness the Sultan ofJohore. I cannot speak too highly ofEnche Salleh bin Mahomed, the Pa Mat ofthis book. Pa Mat was actually my car driver, but he accompanied me on nearly all my outings and had a hand in the death of all but one of the tigers that I shot. He had none ofthe excitement, his work ending when he left me to my lone wait in the darkness. He was out with me at all hours of the day and night and must have had many frightening moments. His cheerfulness, resourcefulness and endurance (particularly during the faring month in which Malays may not eat or drink between sunrise and sunset) continually added to my admiration and affection for him- Finally I wish to say how much I owe to my wife, Jean, 1 Prime Minister. vii Viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT who spent many anxious lonely nights while I was out after tigers and who has shown great patience with me while I have been engrossed in working on this volume. Singapore. A. LOCKE. FOREWORD I think that this is book likely to become a Makyan classic. It deserves to attain that eminence. Colonel Locke is an un- doubted authority on his intriguing subject He has collected a vast of information is a quantity about Malayan tigers, which distinct contribution to local natural history, and he has set it down with admirable and most readable darity. His mass of factual information is made vivid by his commentary upon it all, and by his accounts of personal experiences hunting the tigers of Trengganu. He never hunted for the sake of hunting, nor killed for the sake of killing. As District Officer in a remote, wild region of the State he played his part in protecting the local population from various enemies of their well-being. These included Communist terrorist gangs who infested thejungle, and cattb- destroying or man-eating tigers living in the same resort. to Colonel Locke only sought shoot tigers when they forsook their normal diet ofwild game in the forest, and took to dining offdomestic animals or human beings in the kampongs. Other- wise he felt the admiration for those lordly beasts which their character and beauty must command, and left them free to roam at will their kingdom. In any circumstances tiger hunting must be an interesting sport. In the circumstances which Colonel Locke met, it was fascinating and exciting. Fortunately for us readers, he has the art of conveying those qualities vividly in prose. He handles a as as he does a and the result of his pen skilfully rifle, capacity with both these potent weapons is this excellent book His X FOREWORD performance with a camera is also impressive, and has provided the volume with some good illustrations. One merit ofhis lies in its writing simplicity. Ihallhis pages a there is scarcely superfluous word. His statements offacts, his accounts of experiences and his personal comments on the sub- of are made with an of ject tigers economy language which is almost austere. He that his tale is so recognizes enthralling in itself that it needs no literary tricb or embroidery to enhance and so he never over-states his case. it; On the contrary, in many instances his modest understatements heighten the dramatic effect of the tale. I do not for know, example, any more effective piece of in literature than his writing sporting unadorned, bare and yet thrillingly exciting description of his encounter with the Jerangau Man-eater. In Chapter I he writes: "I commend the lone wait in darkness on a platform placed just high enough to permit a to walk it tiger beneath if he comes that way, and the sub- sequent follow-up of the wounded animal in the dark Let the scene of the hunt be a mile or two from the nearest habitation, in an area which Communist terrorists are known to frequent, and I maintain that the average sportsman should not feel ashamed of himsdfwhen the tiger is dead/' If, after these exertions, he can return home and write as fine a book on the as topic Colonel Locke has done, then in my he also opinion may permit himself to fed proud. CONTENTS PACT vii ix of kills are eaten first The buttodb almost invariably . i An buffalo which the Author had to 6 injured destroy ^ 2 j kill after one A typical nights feeding ... 54 a at full . The pugs of tigress speed 79 Pugs of a male tiger a . The front and hind paws of tiger A successful trap * *3 3 "Stalking is virtually impossible in Malaya" "Usually a simple matter to shoot a wild pig" 154 ~ A tree on which a tiger has sharpened his daws ILLUSTRATIONS Head of adult male tiger Frontispiece "The biggest tiger that I ever shot" 16 FACING PAGE 1 ' old "An male black panther, just past his prime . 16 A confirmed catde^killer 17 of a the canine The mouth young tigress, showing long ' teeth . 17 buttocks of kills are eaten first The almost invariably . 32 An injured buffalo which the Author had to destroy . 32 A typical kill after one nights feeding ... 33 of a at full The pugs tigress speed .... 48 Pugs of a male tiger 49 hind a The front and paws of tiger .... 64 A successful trap 65 "Stalking is virtually imposable in Malaya" . 65 a to a wild "Usually simple matter shoot pig" . 72 A tree on which a tiger has sharpened his daws . 72 "The tiger leapt sideways" 72 The results of a successful daylight neck shot . 73 Studies of a tiger cub 80 the cub the Gurkha Rifles 81 Nepti, tiger captured by 7th in condition A young tigress very good ... 96 "Almost towing her up the slope" .... 97 Pa Mat and the Author with two tigresses . 104 after a in the dark . A flash-light photograph follow-up 104 a Pa Mat erecting platform 104 xiii XIV ILLUSTRATIONS t 11.1 The hide completed ...... 104 Hunt the hunter! ....... 105 "Each and every one of them could be depended upon" 1 12 The second of the twins Kijal ..... 113 The Kemasek man-eater ...... 128 Well defined trail left a by tigress dragging a dead pig 129 "I constructed an imitation corpse" . 136 The trail left by the Jerangau man-eater ... 136 The Jerangau man-eater ...... 136 ' A fine shot on foot . male, . .137 Crossing a jungle river ...... 16! A typical Trengganu Malay ..... I(52 A Herok (coconut) monkey ..... I7<5 The sun but the sets, jungle awakes .... 177 MAPS MAP I . (page x\r) . .The Malay Peninsula MAP n . (page xvi) The Kemaman and Dungun Districts of Trengganu. All photographs by Locke, except thosefacing pages So & 81. s o 1 1 r UIH6GAMU I 111 TiGUS Ot TUNGOAHI. M met] rvi CHAPTER I BACKGROUND T was posted to Kemaman as Government Administrative lOfficer in January 1949. This Administrative Area ofTreng- ganu, which is among the least developed of the Malay States, consists of the two Districts of Kemaman and Dungun, be- tween them covering 1,936 square miles, with a predominantly Malay population, few Chinese having yet been attracted to the area. District The two Offices are fifty miles apart There are only three roads in the area. The through route is the East Coast Road, running from Kuantan in the south, via Kema- man, Dungun and Kuala Trengganu (the State capital) to Kota Bharu in the north. As will be seen from the map at page xvi there are only two side roads, one a nineteen-miles stretch from Kemaman inland to a village called Ayer Puteh, and the other a motorable track turning left-handed in a half- circle from Kemasek to end abruptly at IboL These three roads were all classified as "red" by the police at the time that I left Kemaman in 1951.