An expedition to locate the South China tiger in Dananling Mountains, bordering Jiangxi, Hunan and Fujian provinces, is now underway after two years of preparations. The 10-year project that began in October 2006 is led by the South China Institute of Endangered Animals in Guangdong Province.

The South China tiger, or panthera tigris amoyensis, is a rare species native to central and south China. There were more than 4,000 such tigers in 1949, but no wild tigers have been seen anywhere by Chinese scientists for more than 20 years. There are just 68 South China tigers in 18 zoos across China. These have been bred from two male and four female tigers caught in 1950s and 1970s and are in danger of becoming extinct through inbreeding.

According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, if a species cannot be found in the wild for 50 consecutive years, it will be declared extinct.

On October 11, 2006, some 20 explorers climbed the 1,250-meter-high peaks of the Dananling Mountains and installed the first infrared automatic camera to catch the wild animal on video.

The expedition defined key areas where the tigers might be spotted and by the end of 2006, it had placed an unprecedented 100 infrared automatic cameras in these areas.

The team is, however, faced with many challenges. The sun rises late and sets early in the forests in the mountains in winter. The explorers can enter the forests only by 8 am and have to be out before 5 pm. The danger of getting lost in these forests is very real. Though the mountains are not high, the forests are so dense that even if you climb the top of a tree you cannot tell directions, and a compass is of little use. Water sources provide the only clue to one's bearings.

There is also the danger of being caught by boar clips laid down by hunters. If one' legs are caught, they are sure to break. And then there are the black bears, whose paws are enough to crush one's head. The expedition has to proceed in absolute silence.

The Yao people who inhabit these areas reported seeing two tigers, a female and her male cub drinking water from a river, in 1993. But this has never been officially verified.

"I've gone to the mountains a dozen times to look for the tiger, and it is my life-time desire to find one," said Yuan Xicai, a senior research fellow.

Wang Xingjin, director of the research center of Guangzhou Zoo said at a meeting on November 16, "It's just a matter of time before the wild South China tiger dies out."

But the expedition members are not giving up hope. "Even if we fail to find the tiger, it doesn't mean the animal is extinct," one of them said.

(Source: Southern Weekly, Xinhua, gol.163, etc.)