The soldiers at Fort Polk are under attack

Soldiers at Fort Polk are under attack, not by terrorists or revolutionaries, but by a Bengal Tiger.

The Tiger has been seen lurking through the thickets in the outback of Ft. Polk. In the undergrowth and brush, the tiger stealthfully watches the soldiers who are sent out there to capture it.

The cat appears to be about a year old and weighing in at about 100 pounds, and on its tail (pun intended) are about 100 solders.

US Army soldiers armed with nets, raw chicken and helicopters are searching for an enemy whose instincts for survival have been razor sharpened by thousands of years of evolution. So far, the tiger is winning.

The Army is calling for reinforcements and more than doubled the size of the search team, which began with 40 deputies and soldiers on Tuesday. The searchers will try to capture the animal in a trap or with a tranquilizer dart, but will kill it if it attacks, said Maj. Ron Elliott, a Fort Polk spokesman. In the latter case, the tiger goes down the hard way. It is not known where the tiger came from or who it belongs to. No zoos have reported any escapes, and the tiger was, in all likelihood, someone’s pet that either escaped or was let loose deliberately – it is illegal to keep such animals as pets in the United States. A tiger will not hesitate to attack if it feels threatened in anyway, and this could cause serious problems as tiger attacks are generally fatal. Unlike the common house cat, a tiger cannot be domesticated and keeping one as a pet is a risky adventure – one never knows when such a cat will perceive a threat to its safety and instinctively react accordingly. Michael Berglin