Fewer Than 50 Tigers Remain In Wild In China Per Latest Estimate - S. China Subspecies Likely Gone

Tigers once roamed huge swathes of China, right up to the now booming east coast. Their population has collapsed due to habitat destruction on the back of rapid economic development and poaching for tiger products to use in traditional medicine. About 10 still live in the southwestern province of Yunnan, some 15 in Tibet, and 20 or so in northwestern Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, said Xie Yan, China Country Program Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

The South China Tiger is probably already extinct, she told the Foreign Correspondents Club of China, ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year of the Tiger, which starts on Sunday. "The number of wild tigers left in China is very depressing," Xie said. "We have less than 50 individuals in the wild. The populations in Tibet and in the south are still dropping. The northeast tiger is now stable, and maybe increasing a little, but the number is still very small," she added.

Conservationists say the trade in skin and bones is booming in countries such as China, which has banned the use of tiger parts in medicine but where everything from fur and whiskers to eyeballs and bones are still used. Skins sell as rugs and cloaks on the black market, fetching up to $20,000 for a single pelt.

Activists say tough laws and occasional well-publicized clampdowns cannot compensate for a crucial problem -- the lack of strong and consistent enforcement. Barely 3,500 tigers are estimated to be roaming wild across 12 Asian countries and Russia, compared with about 100,000 a century ago, conservationists say.

EDIT

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6171B220100208?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

are being extirpated at a rapid pace, too

:mad:

reporter was at an encampment, interviewing the "culprits", while a short distance away, a gorgeous adult tiger was lowing in pain in a small cage.....they were starving her to death, so as not to damage the pelt.

I never forgot that.

.

If Chinese men were issued a ration of 60 viagra per month, the market for this kind of slaughter would probably dry up almost overnight.

:cry:

:cry:

and there were 4 or more subspeciae...and the Bengal and Siberian are really the only ones commonly known...and why, because of zoos.

as much as I have wrestled with the humane-ness of zoos, I am glad these animals are at least relatively "safe," compared to life in the wild being hunted...
Human greed, whether for pelt or medicine is just a disgusting thing. And I hate to say this, but is China more ruthless in this respect than other countries? I know the Ivory trade is equally horrific, but I think that the asian markets are much more encouraging to this kind of behavior.
so sad, enforcement won't save these creatures... and so many more like them are following right behind.
even with pollution and destruction of habitat as causes...the ultimte cause is human greed.

:cry:

Thanks Hatrack for posting the updates on climate and extinction, it is so valuable to stay informed...and yet so many can't even bring themselves to look, much less comment. So much of this is a trainwreck out of control and all we can do is watch.