YAKUTSK, January 9 (RIA Novosti) – A criminal case over the killing of a rare Siberian deer has been opened against four officials from Russia’s Natural Resources and Ecology Ministry, police said Thursday.
Five men with rifles and the carcass of a Siberian stag, also known as a Manchurian Wapiti, were apprehended in the Churapinsky District of the Sakha Republic in Siberia, according to a police statement.
“A special license, which the men could not provide, is required to hunt this species of deer,” the statement said.
Four of the men were specialists from the Natural Resources and Ecology Ministry, according to police.
The Siberian stag is native to parts of Siberia and northern China, and is protected under Russian law.
