The South China tiger or South Chinese tiger , also known as the Chinese, Amoy, or Xiamen tiger,and is a subspecies of tiger native to the forests of Southern China. The South China tiger is one of the smaller and the most critically endangered of the living tiger subspecies. Experts maintain that there are fewer than 20 of these tigers left in the world, and warn that it might become extinct within the next decade. One was recently born in a reserve in South Africa in November 2007, the first to be born outside China. In October 2007, the forestry department of Zhenping county, Shaanxi published photographs of P. t. amoyensis in its native habitat, but these were later debunked after an investigation.The South China tiger is considered to be the “stem” tiger, the subspecies from which all other tigers descended. The South China tiger has been recently listed as one of the world's 10 most endangered animals.Until the beginning of the 20th century, the South China tiger was distributed in many parts of southern and eastern China. In 1959, Mao Zedong, in the time of the Great Leap Forward, declared the tiger and other predators such as leopards and wolves to be pests and “enemies of the people”; as a result, several “anti-pest” campaigns started. The tigers then were considered pests because they attacked farmers and villagers.Becoming widely persecuted, their wild population of the South China tiger fell from more than 4,000 to less than 200 by 1982. The Chinese government then reversed the classification of the tiger, banning hunting altogether in 1977, but this seems to have been too late. The South China tiger has not been seen in the wild for more than 20 years.The South China tiger, Panthera tigris amoyensis, was formerly abundant in South China's temperate upland forests. Today its wide range has been reduced to three isolated areas in south-central China, where small and scattered populations are said to persist along the mountainous borders between provinces. As with the Black-footed Ferret, one of the biggest contributing factors to the South China tigers' dwindling population is the destruction of its prey base. Two other major factors that have contributed to the tiger’s decline are poaching and population fragmentation. South China tigers, like other tiger subspecies, live in dense jungles. South China tigers also love spending time in water, similar to other tiger subspecies.
