China originally had five species of tigers: the Siberian tiger, the South China tiger, the Xinjiang tiger, the Bengal tiger and the Indochinese tiger.
South China Tiger
Xinjiang tigers, also known as Caspian tigers, are now extinct; Siberian tigers are located in a quiet corner, mostly distributed in northeast China and the Russian Far East, because their fur is too exquisite, they have been hunted by humans in large numbers, and they are on the verge of extinction; Bengal tigers are fierce and aggressive, and mothers and daughters, fathers and sons often kill each other, mainly in Bangladesh and Nepal, India. It is the largest subspecies of tiger in existence, with more than 2,000 in the wild, of which about 20 live in the southern region of Tibet in China; the Indochina tiger in China is distributed in the border of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province, Myanmar and Laos, and the population does not exceed 10.
Cultured South China tiger
Finally, back to the South China Tiger, also known as the Xiamen Tiger, is a tiger endemic to China and the ancestor of all tigers. It was listed in the IUCN Red Species List in 2012 as critically endangered. Today, the South China tiger is generally considered to be extinct in the wild, ranking first among the top ten endangered species in the world.
The number of extant South China tigers is just over 200, and most of them live in major zoos in China, which is a national treasure animal that is more precious than the giant panda!
South China tiger at Luoyang Wangcheng Zoo
Although the number of South China tigers has increased in recent years, in fact, all the South China tigers in Chinese zoos are the descendants of 6 South China tigers. The six South China tigers were captured in Guizhou and Fujian from 1958 to 1970, and due to the small initial population of South China tigers, inbreeding was inevitable during the breeding process.
For the South China tiger, the biggest harm is the increase in the probability of disease, resulting in an increase in the rate of congenital defects in newly born young tigers, such as dementia, short tail, rickets, infertility, of which the most typical disease gene is: short tail.
The tiger's tail is up to 1 meter long, and its basic function is to maintain the balance of the body. With the tail, they can balance their bodies while running fast and not fall. And the tail also plays a big role in the tiger when fighting other animals, the tiger's tail is long and powerful like a steel whip, which can make the enemy dizzy. All this means that short-tailed tigers can hardly adapt to the wild environment, cannot hunt on their own, and can never return to nature.
Artificially bred South China tiger
Due to the small initial population of artificial breeding of South China tigers, all the Current South China tigers are inbreeding, and what is more frightening is that there are no wild South China tigers in the wild that can participate in them to improve the genes of the entire population of tigers. Will our Chinese tigers ultimately be unable to be preserved?
Black Dragon Well Mudanjiang Hengdao Hezi Siberian Tiger
Someone on the Internet proposed: Can the Siberian tiger and the South China tiger be used to cross and then release them back into nature to achieve the purpose of breeding the South China tiger?
In fact, hybridization between subspecies of tigers can produce offspring, and offspring can also be fertile. If it is really necessary to use the hybrid method to preserve the genes of the South China tiger, the first tiger species to be selected will not be the Siberian tiger, more likely to be the Indochinese tiger, followed by the Bengal tiger, and finally the Siberian tiger will be considered, why is this?
Indian protected area of the Indochinese tiger
Indochinese tigers are mainly distributed in the Indochina Peninsula, but China's Guangxi Yunnan is the historical distribution area of Indochina tigers, and Jiangxi, Hunan and Guizhou, which are close to these two places, are the historical key distribution areas of The South China tigers. There is no geographical barrier between the South China tiger and the Indochinese tiger in terms of historical distribution, and there are overlapping distribution areas. Therefore, in the natural state, they are free to intermarry and reproduce, which is not a hybridization.
Amur Tiger
It's just that humans have divided them by subspecies, and in fact there are transitional native tigers in nature. Since there are transitional types of South China tigers and Indochinese tigers in nature, how can we arbitrarily call them "hybrid tigers"?
All south China tigers in captivity in China today are bred from 6 captured South China tigers. Five of the six South China tigers were captured from Guizhou, and whether they are pure South China tiger blood is a question mark in itself.
Breeding and rewilding training of South China tigers
I believe that every Chinese would like to continue this species with pure South China tiger genes, but it is not realistic at present. Wild tigers have not been found for decades, and their blood ties are too close to each other, which has made the maladies of inbreeding frequent. Are those skinny tigers the so-called purebred South China tigers? The sick tiger has become a typical symbol of the purebred South China tiger, what an unacceptable thing, I would rather have a healthy tiger with mixed Indochinese tiger and South China tiger blood, than a purebred South China tiger with a high degree of blood!
Nowadays, in the case of precarious populations, it is necessary to over-subspecies and in this name to cut off the reproduction between tiger subspecies that can exchange genes in nature, which is equivalent to further islanding of tiger populations. Florida mountain lions in the United States were also too small to maintain population reproduction, and the introduction of Texas mountain lions to join the population to reproduce, which allowed the genes carrying Florida mountain lions to be passed on.
Drawing on this example, we select some Indochinese tigers with similar characteristics to the South China tiger to join the breeding population of the South China tiger, first let the South China tiger population grow healthily, and then when the number is large enough, then select individuals with typical South China tiger characteristics for screening and purification.