SOUTH CHINA TIGER

SOUTH CHINA TIGER:

South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis), Beijing zoo, China.- By © John Mackinnon

The South China tiger population was estimated to number 4,000 individuals in the early 1950s. In the next few decades, thousands were killed as the subspecies was hunted as a pest. The Chinese government banned hunting in 1979. By 1996 the population was estimated to be just 30-80 individuals.

By Wikipedia

Today the South China tiger is considered by scientists to be “functionally extinct,” as it has not been sighted in the wild for more than 25 years.

FACTS ABOUT SOTH CHINA TIGER:

By AnimalSake

• STATUS:
• Critically Endangered
• POPULATION:
  believed to be extinct in the wild
• SCIENTIFIC NAME:
  Panthera tigris amoyensis
• HABITATS:
  Southeast China-Hainan Moist Forests

WHY THY MATTER:

By WWF

South China tigers are a reminder that the threat against the world’s tiger is an urgent one. Today, South China tigers are found in zoos and in South Africa where there are plans to reintroduce captive-bred tigers back into the wild.

THREATS:

HABITAT IN PIECES

If any South China tigers remain in the wild, these few individuals would be found in montane sub-tropical evergreen forest of southeast China, close to provincial borders. The habitat is highly fragmented, with most blocks smaller than 200 square miles and not large enough to sustain a tiger population.

South China Tiger natural habitat (black) - By Wikipedia

HUNTED AS PESTS

Although China outlawed tiger hunting in 1979 and declared the South China tiger's survival a conservation priority in 1995, it is thought that even if a few individuals remain, no existing protected areas or habitat are sufficiently large, healthy or undisturbed enough to sustain viable tiger populations.