Threatened Species Threatened Habitat: South China Tiger

Note: Soz, I had some stuff up before from yesterdays lesson but that wasn't really answering the questions so I re-did it after school and tried to put it up but my internet has been chucking a spaz attack until now (both of my internets actually...) So it's a little late because of that.

Threatened Species Threatened Habitat

By Jess B

a) Select a species and/or ecological community that is threatened.

The South China Tiger (華南虎 in traditional Chinese and 华南虎 in simplified Chinese) or Panthera tigris amoyensis (also known as the Chinese, Amoy or Xiamen tiger) is native to the forests of Southern China.

b) What are the threatening processes?

The South China tiger has recently been listed in the 10 most endangered animals in the world and there are estimated to be only 10-30 of them left in the wild and it may be extinct within the next decade.

The South China tiger used to be abundant in China’s temperate upland forests but it has now been reduced to three isolated areas in south-central China were small and scattered populations are said to exist in along the mountainous borders between provinces. Due to this fragmentation of the South China tiger’s, the breeding base of this species has been dramatically reduced and they can not travel to find other groups.

Two other contributing factors to the South China tiger’s dwindling population is the destruction of their prey base and poaching. In 1959, Mao Zedong, in the time of the Great Leap Forward, declared the tiger and other predators like leopards and wolves to be pests and “enemies of the people” and, as a result, several “anti-pest” campaigns were started. Because of this, the wild population of the South China tiger fell from more than 4,000 to less than 200 by 1982.

c) What actions have been taken to save the species or ecological community?

In 1977, the Chinese government completely banned the hunting of the South China tiger after reversing it’s classification of a pest. Since 1990, China’s State Forestry Administration has been establishing special nature reserves in an attempt to save the South China tiger. (This may have been too late though as the South China tiger has not been seen in the wild for 20 years) China’s few captive tigers are now part of a central breeding program after more South China tigers were identified in zoos across the country.

The organization Save China’s Tigers is also working with the Wildlife Research Centre of the State Forestry Administration of China and the Chinese Tigers South Africa Trust to reintroduce Chinese tigers to the wild. The agreement, which was signed in Beijing on November 26, 2002, calls for the establishment of a Chinese Tiger conservation model through the creation of a Pilot Reserve in China where indigenous wildlife including the South China tiger will be reintroduced. A number of Chinese tiger cubs will be selected from zoos in China and sent to a 300 square kilometer reserve near the town of Philippolis in South Africa where they will be taught to hunt for themselves. The offspring of the trained tigers will be released into the pilot reserves in China, and the trained tigers will continue to stay in South Africa to continue breeding.

d) How have these actions and decisions affected all species including humans?

To be able to reintroduce the tigers to the wild, the Chinese government needs to rehabilitate the environment in the reserves and rebuild the tiger’s prey base. This will benefit the ecological communities of the reserves and will also increase the biodiversity of many areas. These actions and decisions affect humans because they are reintroducing a large predator which had been known to eat humans (that is why they were declared a pest by Mao Zedong) but the tigers will live in special reserves so they wont be as big a risk as they were in 1959 when they were roaming wild and people were uneducated about them.

e) Are there any conflicts of interest? Have they been resolved to preserve biodiversity?

The conflicts of interest that revolve around the South China tigers are that of the poachers and the conservationists and the government and the conservationists over the money that it will take to rehabilitate the reserves. It is a large financial loss for both the poachers and the government to preserve this species but the poaching of the South China tiger has already been banned and the government is under enormous pressure from both its own people and the world to do something about the situation. The question is really whether the money that is spent is worth a subspecies of tiger that is considered to be the “stem” tiger from which all other subspecies descended.

f) What is your view of the best solution in saving these species?

I think that the rehabilitation of the reserves, the total banning of poaching and the breeding programs in China’s zoos (with the aim of reintroducing the tigers to the wild) are the best solutions to saving the South China tiger from extinction. The problem is that we may have already left our solutions too late as, with only 10 – 30 tigers left in the wild, they are already on the very brink of extinction.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_China_Tiger (7 October, 2008)
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/03/0302_050302_tiger_africa.html (March 2, 2005)
http://www.google.com