The suspected cause of a recent death of a wild Siberian tiger was a neck snare, says an animal expert.

An animal expert checks the carcass of a Siberian tiger at Fusheng village, Heilongjiang province, Oct 28, 2011.?[jinghua.cn]

A rusty snare stuck around the tiger's neck. [jinghua.cn]

The tiger, which was found dead on Oct 27 by a reservior in Fusheng village, Mishan city in Heilongjiang province, could have accidentally gotten stuck in the snare, possibly made by hunters using steel wire, Sun Haiyi, vice-director from the wildlife research institution, said Saturday, according to a Xinhua report.

Sun, who rushed to the village with his colleagues for a preliminary investigation, says the rusty stains on the snare suggest it has been around the tiger's neck for a while. It caused no fatal harm to the big cat immediately, but it could have affected its food in-take process and limited its hunting activities, leading to its death.

The carcass of the tiger was sent to the institution on Friday night for further post-mortem examination.

Experts also confirmed that it was a 2-year-old wild Siberian tiger, the same one that was spotted near a reservoir in the village on Oct 17.