South China Tiger
 Name: Panthera tigris amoyensis (South
China Tiger)
Description: The South China tiger is one of the
smallest tiger subspecies. Male tigers measure about 2.5 meters (8 feet)
from head to tail and weigh approximately 150 kilograms (330 pounds).
Female tigers are smaller, measuring about 2.3 meters (7 1/2 feet) long.
They weigh approximately 110 kilograms (240 pounds). The short, broad
stripes of the South China tiger are spaced far apart compared to those
of Bengal and Siberian tigers.
Distribution: The South China tiger was once found
in central and eastern China.
Biology: Little is known about the specific biology
of this tiger subspecies.
Status in the wild: The South China tiger is the
most critically endangered of all tiger subspecies The current status of
wild South China tigers is vague. Only 40 years ago there were reputed
to be more than 4,000 tigers, but the government declared them pests,
and they were hunted mercilessly. A 1987 field survey by Chinese
scientists reported a few tigers remaining in the Guangdong mountains
bordering Hunan and Jiangxi, and another survey in 1990 noted evidence
of about a dozen tigers in 11 reserves in the remote mountains of
Guangdong, Hunan, and Fujian Provinces of South China. No tigers were
seen. The only evidence came from anecdotal stories from hunters. An
unconfirmed report from the Ministry of Forestry in 1995 suggests that
the wild population is fewer than 20 individuals.
The Chinese Ministry of Forestry lists 21 reserves within the
presumed range of the tiger, and Chinese specialists believe between 20
and 30 tigers are still left in the wild. In October 2007, a report was
published in the China
Daily newspaper announcing that Zhou Zhenglong, a
farmer in Zhenping County, West China's Shaanxi Province took a photo of
a wild South China Tiger. If verified by independent experts, this would
indeed be a surprise to many tiger conservationists who believed that
the South China Tiger was extinct in the wild.
Captive breeding: According to the 1995 South China
Tiger Studbook the captive population of 48 South China tigers is
confined to 19 Chinese zoos. They are descended from only six
wild-caught tigers (about 120 tigers descended from 30 wild-caught
tigers would be closer to the ideal). The last time that a wild tiger
was brought into captivity was 20 years ago. The situation for the
future does not look good. One group is attempting to
‘rewild’ captive South China tigers on a reserve in South
Africa so that wild populations of South China Tigers can be
re-established.
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