Tigers have gone on a rampage in Russia killing people and eating dogs after Vladimir Putin has saved the species from extinction. <br /><br />Giant Amur tigers - considered the world's largest cats - are thought to be behind a series of attacks over the last year, which saw two people get killed by the beasts and several more injured.<br /><br />In December, Viktor S was viciously mauled and killed in the Khabarovsk region in eastern Russia while he was looking for 'the place where his dog was killed', likely by the same animal. <br /><br />Local fisherman Sergey Kyalundzyuga, 19, was seriously injured last year after a wild tiger jumped through his window and attacked him. He survived after the big cat was shot dead by his cousin. <br /><br />This comes after Putin supported the rehabilitation of Amur tigers in their natural habitat in the east of the country. <br /><br />Now numbers of the endangered species have rapidly risen to over 750 in the wild - and they are proving a threat to villagers.<br /><br />One man's remains were found near the Khabarovsk region after he was reported missing. Investigators said there were clear traces that he was attacked and devoured by a tiger. <br /><br />Also last year, Darya Ulyanova, 26, suffered 'severe lacerations' to her shoulder and both arms when a tiger attacked her as she reportedly 'went to the toilet in the bushes' on a holiday trip. Her husband used his truck to ram it, saving her life.<br /><br />Shocking videos show a spate of attacks on guard dogs by prowling Amur tigers.<br /><br />In one case, a tiger killed a trained guard dog at a Russian border post with China in the Khabarovsk region.<br /><br />Just this weekend a tiger killed a guard dog in the village of Kutuzovka, south of Khabarovsk city, then another was eaten, likely by the same big cat in the Srednekhorskii village, some 25 miles away.<br /><br />In the neighboring Primorsky region, a house guard dog was savaged in Kuguki, north of Vladivostok.<br /><br />Earlier this month a heavyweight 60kg guard dog was killed in the Anuchinsky district of Primorsky region - likely by a tiger of the Amur species, where the males can weigh up to 190kg.<br /><br />Last month there were tiger attacks on dogs in at least three villages.<br /><br />One theory for the killings is that the natural habitat of the tigers is being destroyed by man, meaning the beasts cannot find their usual prey.<br /><br />Poaching remains a threat to the tigers and almost drove them to extinction in the wild in Soviet times.
