Environment

WWF Says China's Wild Tiger Population Down to 50

by Amy Judd | January 19, 2010 at 05:04 pm

375 views | 10 Recommendations | 1 comment

The WWF has released a statement saying that they estimate China's wild tiger population is down to just 50 and that the wild tiger faces extinction due to loss of habitat and poaching.

"If there are no urgent measures taken, there is a high risk that the wild tiger will go extinct," Zhu Chunquan, conservation director of biodiversity at WWF China, said ahead of the start of the Year of the Tiger on February 14.

With just 50 wild tigers left to be estimated in China, WWF estimates that if the poaching continues then it will be only about 30 years until the tigers go extinct.

Contributing to the extinction is the loss of tiger habitat and the loss of the tiger's prey.

The SFA says around 20 Siberian tigers remain in China's north-east, 20 Bengal tigers in Tibet, and 10 Indochinese tigers in the southwest of the nation.

"As for the South China tiger, after the late 1970s, there has been no concrete evidence to show that there are any left," Mr Zhu said.

In the 1950s there were about 4,000 of the South China Tiger in the wild.

WWF has the tiger on their top 10 watch list for 2010, as they estimate that there is only 3,200 tigers left in the wild worldwide.

China has banned international trade in tiger bones but illegal poaching remains a huge problem.