Dog-eating cat forces students to miss first class of school each day - and a disco

Villagers in the Russian Far East have been terrorised by a wild big cat in recent weeks. 

The striped animal is helping itself to chained guard dogs in the yards of homes in Aleksey-Nikolskoye. 

Children have been banned form going to school before daybreak - which means missing their first class - because the predator which hunts in darkness could attack if it senses a threat to its food. 

A teenage boy Leonid Chikachev missed a school disco after seeing the tiger near his house, with his family dog in its mouth.

‘I went out, used a torch, and it was standing there, with Korol the dog in his teeth

'It looked at me, I directed light in its eyes for about three seconds - and fled home.’

An Amur tiger attacked seven dogs in the village of Aleksey-Nikolskoye. Pictures: Vesti Primorye

The predator here is, of course, an Amur - or Siberian - tiger, the largest big cat in the world, an endangered species endemic to the Far East of Russia. 

Or as one WWF expert believes, it is likely to be a tigress, which is seizing easy prey - chained dogs - for its cub or cubs rather than go hunting.

'The tigress has been terrorising the area for about a month,’ said Pavel Fomenko. ‘This time the tigress pulled the dog with a collar off the chain.

’It didn't eat the dog straight away, which confirms our theory that it must be a mother. 

‘The tigress pulled the dog away with traces clearly visible on the snow.

'Why did it do it? ‘We think the tigress has a cub. 

‘If our suspicion is confirmed, the situation will get more complicated because catching a tigress with a cub - and removing them both out of the wild - is extremely undesirable.’

Leonid Chikachev's second family dog was wounded in the same attack. Pictures: Vesti Primorye 

Hunting expert Andrey Oryol said: ‘When the tiger has prey, it will definitely attack.’

The predator ‘understands that this is easily accessible food, and it doesn't need to run in snow.

‘The tiger just goes there and grabs the food.’

Wildlife experts are now at the scene seeking to scare the big cat away from the village which is 32 kilometres from the city of Ussuriysk.