Photo by Chester Moore, Jr.

Here's some great news from China via the AFP news Service.

"A rare South China tiger has been spotted in the wild for the first time in decades, surprising researchers who feared the subspecies was extinct outside of captivity, state media said Friday."

"Experts have confirmed a photograph taken on October 3 by a farmer in Shaanxi province was of a young wild South China tiger, the most critically endangered of all tiger subspecies, Xinhua news agency said."

"Experts have said no more than 20 to 30 of the tigers were believed to remain in the wild, but none have been spotted in decades, with many fearing that a small number of captive-born tigers were all that remained."

"The population of the South China tiger, the smallest tiger subspecies, was believed to number 4,000 in the early 1950s. But numbers were greatly reduced after Communist leader Mao Zedong labelled the elusive felines "pests" and ordered an extermination campaign. The last wild South China tiger sighting was recorded in 1964."

China is currently involved in a controversial "rewilding" project to reintroduce captive South Chinese tigers into the wild. Look for an article on this subject in the next couple of weeks. I've been doing lots of research and find the program quite fascinating.

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