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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.