Global News - October 2007

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Chinese officials mount expedition to look for rare tiger

Mon 29 October 2007 14:15 UK — Asia,Big Cats

Authorities in China have banned all hunting in an area where a highly endangered tiger was recently spotted, to give authorities a chance to verify the sighting.

The state Xinhua news agency has reported that all hunting in the northern Shaanxi province has been suspended after a local farmer claimed to have recorded images of a young south China tiger earlier this month.

According to the report, the State Forestry Administration (SFA) will now organise a mission to look for the creature, which belongs to a species which was thought to be extinct.

SFA spokesperson Liu Xiongying told the news agency: "Forestry investigation is a complicated task and we are still making specific plans, including selecting experts."

In the early 1950s around 4,000 south China tigers survived in the wild. However, the country's rapid economic expansion put their habitat under threat and their numbers dwindled.

By the 1970s it was thought that the animal was extinct in China. Only 30 exist in the wild and the creature was recently declared one of the world's ten most endangered animals.

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