YAKUTSK — Police have opened a criminal case against four environmental officials over the killing of a rare Siberian deer.
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 republic of Sakha, police said in a statement Thursday.
"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 Environment Ministry
The Siberian stag is native to parts of Siberia and northern China, and is protected under Russian law.
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