The South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) is a tiger subspecies that was native to the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi in southern China, and has been classified as critically endangered by IUCN since 1996 as it is possibly extinct in the wild. There is a small chance that some individuals are still extant. But already in the late 1990s, continued survival was considered unlikely due to low prey density, widespread habitat degradation and fragmentation, and other human pressures. No official or biologist has seen a wild South China tiger since the early 1970s, when the last verified record is of an individual brought into captivity.
Since the 1980s, the South China tiger is considered a relict population of the "stem" tiger, living close to the possible area of origin. Morphologically, it is the most distinctive of all tiger subspecies.
The name Amoy tiger was used in the fur trade. It is also known as the South Chinese, the Chinese, and the Xiamen tiger.
Read more about South China Tiger: Characteristics, Distribution, Ecology and Behavior, Conservation, Possible Evidence of Wild South China Tigers Survival
Famous quotes containing the words south, china and/or tiger:
“History in the making is a very uncertain thing. It might be better to wait till the South American republic has got through with its twenty-fifth revolution before reading much about it. When it is over, some one whose business it is, will be sure to give you in a digested form all that it concerns you to know, and save you trouble, confusion, and time. If you will follow this plan, you will be surprised to find how new and fresh your interest in what you read will become.”
—Anna C. Brackett (1836–1911)
“The roof of England fell
Great Paris tolled her bell
And China staunched her milk and wept for bread”
—Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)
“Iknowwhata mother tiger does when she’s upset. She eats her young.”
—Guy Trosper, U.S. screenwriter, and John Frankenheimer. Robert Stroud (Burt Lancaster)