Chinese tiger/ Panthera tigris amoyensis

Chinese tiger/ Panthera tigris amoyensis

According to the zoo's website all of its Chinese tigers were moved to an off display breeding center. How many are still at the zoo?

They still keep one animal for education purposes.

Recent tests showed that all chinese tigers have some bengal blood in them... The spicies is extinct.

Where can I read it? The official source please!

Whilst the species in its purest form is extinct, I'd be interested to know how possible it would be to 'breed out' the Bengal blood as much as possible, and I wonder how close to pure you could make them from that?

For example, each animal likely has a different amount of Bengal blood in it, so if you bred say, 75% amoyensis with another 75% amoyensis, then the offspring would be closer to pure? What percentage of pure amoyensis blood could we get it to, and what percentage of Bengal blood would be left?

"In 2005, the captive population of South China Tigers consisted of 57 individuals descended from six founders and showed signs of inbreeding, including reduced genetic diversity and a low rate of successful breeding (Tilson et al. 1997, Wang et al. 2005). Few seem to be "pure" South China Tigers as there is genetic evidence of cross-breeding with other subspecies (Guo 2007). Luo et al. (2008) give the global captive population at 72 in 2007; there are few captive South China Tigers outside China (P. Nyhus pers. comm. 2008). "

Panthera tigris ssp. amoyensis (South China Tiger)

And at the time there is a demand pending that the IUCN puts it on EX and it seems sadly very likely.