It was just 40 years ago there were 4,000 South China Tigers living among the wild. It was 40 years ago when the Chinese government declared them pest and ordered them to be destroyed. They offered big money to any person who could bring them a dead tiger. Since then it has been nearly 20 years to the day that anyone has reported seeing a South China Tiger.
The Chinese Ministry of Forestry has listed 21 reserves with in the presumed range. They claim the 30-80 tiger live among the 21 reserves but they themselves haven't seen one in over 10 years.
South China Tiger are the rarest of all 5 tiger subspecies, the most threaten, and the closest to extinction. That is if they aren't extinct already. Some believe that the South China Tiger is the most recent tiger to be added to the extinct tiger list. It was estimated in 1998 (the year of the tiger) there was no living South China Tiger living in the wild. However there are 48 currently living in zoos around the world.
South China Pictures
