Two men were charged in court yesterday with shooting a banteng in Oddar Meanchey’s Anglong Veng district, the second report of one of the endangered wild cattle being killed in as many days.

Hoat Choeung, 32, and Nat Cheya, 26, were arrested on Sunday after a community member found the wild cattle’s skeleton in Rokha Vorn community forest on Saturday, said district police chief Hout Sary.

“Three men are involved in the case,” he said. “We arrested two, but one managed to escape. We are identifying and searching for him.”

The pair claim the suspect who fled was the one who killed the banteng, while they helped butcher the animal and sold the meat. The men face one to five years in prison, said provincial prosecutor Kouy Kanya.

Monk Bun Saluth, Rokha Vorn community forest’s chief, estimated there were only about 100 banteng in Oddar Meanchey, with four killed last year and two this year.

The species was declared endangered in 2000, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.