Mazlan Aluij, 50, arrived at his deceased wife’s grave in Kampung Dakoh, on December 26 to find it savaged by the wild animal. Aluij’s wife, named Amek Along, had died just a few weeks before from a stroke, the New Straits Times reported.

Aluij told the New Straits Times that he and his son had visited the graveyard routinely before the incident.

“I visit the graveyard to clean it with my son on December 26 and suddenly I noticed footprints and bear excrement in the area where my late wife was buried,” he told the news outlet. “The next day, I brought the village residents along to check the area. We found that Amek’s body was eaten by a wild bear and it was roaming around the graveyard.”

The species of bear wasn’t specified in reports, but the Sun Bear is the only one native to Malaysia. They live only in Southeast Asia and are most often found in tropical forests.

The species, although the smallest bear in the world, are considered to be very aggressive. They have been known to attack humans and other animals seemingly without cause, but this remains rare.

Bears are opportunistic hunters, meaning they prefer food that is easily available to them. Although humans aren’t their typical prey, they will eat almost anything that they scavenge as an easy meal.

Aluij called the Gua Musan police station to report the incident immediately after it happened.

The same bear had allegedly been spotted roaming a backyard and had attacked a dog not long before the incident.

“According to our practices, the body of a deceased person should not be moved and should be left there,” Aluij told the New Straits Times.

It appears the bear is still terrorizing the neighborhood. A bear was spotted wandering the nearby Kampung Perawas, Pos Balar village recently. It isn’t certain whether it was the same bear that savaged the grave.

Sun bears are threatened by forest degradation across Southeast Asia. They usually feed on small animals such as birds, lizards and rodents, and fruits, berries and plants.

Habitat degradation is increasing human-animal conflict in rural areas around the world. As forests and other habitats disappear, animals are wandering into populated communities in search of food and resources.

It is possible that this bear savaged the grave after failing to find food sources in its natural habitat.

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