South China Tiger spotted - October 15, 2007
Chinese news sources are reporting that the highly endangered South China Tiger has been seen in the wild for the first time in years (Xinhua, Huash). Nearly all the remaining tigers of this species are in captive breeding facilities and experts put the number of wild individuals at around 25 at most (BBC). Now photographs taken by a farmer appear to catch one of these on film, the first confirmed sighting in 30 years.
The Chinese news channels have a pretty impressive picture of the animal in question. Although there don’t appear to be official English versions of these stories there is a translation available. This says the tiger was snapped by Zhenglong Zhou, a villager from Zhenping County in Ankang City, Shaanxi Province.
This sighting is much more convincing than a photo of the Yangtze dolphin that was wheeled out after reports of that creature’s demise. Still, it is going to take more than this to convince that the tiger is out of the woods. On its own, one tiger is not very much use.
Image: USFWS
Comments
"On its own, one tiger is not very much use" - INCREDIBLE, who is this guy? One WILD critically -endangerd South China Tiger is priceless. For one thing, sighting a SC tiger after 30 years suggests that there are probably others. Since all the SC tigers in captivity are the genetically-weakened offspring of just 6 'founder' tigers - the potential DNA value to the genetic pool of just one wild tiger is incaluable. "Not much use"? Grrrrrrr.
Posted by: Gary Verstick | October 16, 2007 07:46 AM
the tiger's photo have been discussed,someone doubted it's truth,considering the tiger is painted a cardboard.
Posted by: Willams | October 16, 2007 04:03 PM
The South China tiger story has caused much controversy nationwide. Nearly 1/3 people on the web believe that the photos taken by the farmer Zhou are forgery and the whole thing is a hoax. The Tiger of Zhou, as someone puts it, is actually a "paper tiger" against the real background. See (http://bbs.people.com.cn/postDetail.do?boardId=1&view=2&id=3844643). I am sorry that the news spreads worldwide as if the real tiger is spotted after 30 years of extinction. Personally, I don't believe it. But does Nature?
Posted by: GQSHA | November 3, 2007 05:17 AM