Comments on: First in Decades: South China Tiger Sighting

By: jedimaster5000

jedimaster5000 — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:59:56 +0000

Last time I remember (it was 2004), I found out that there is about 30 of these magnificent animals left.

I sure love reading articles like this, mainly because how amazing they are, and how they evaded danger all this time. And seriously, anyone who kills tigers for medicines are greedy, because is it bad enough they kill billions just for medicine (theres another reason why they are greedy, and that is that they’re life expectancy is over 100, especially when theres 2 billion people living there).

By: Alligator

Alligator — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:45:44 +0000

No folks, the South China tiger hasn’t been reported in the wild for over 20 years. This can only mean this tiger is an escaped pet.

(Just kidding) Terrific that the species has been rediscovered, but until the Chinese get beyond some of their folk medicine, tigers, bears and rhinos will continue to face extinction. Even though China is a totalitarian state with severe punishments for poaching, the potential monetary reward leads many there to take the odds. Many years ago, I asked my room mate from China what they used these parts for. H listed a variety of ailments that we have over-the counter medicines for, but a primary use of these animal parts is for aphrodisiacs! Sheesh.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:29:31 +0000

I’m with Kittenz on this one. It is a travesty the amount of species needlessly killed or harvested for their “medicinal” values. Most of these types of concoctions made from animal parts don’t even have any sort of proven physiological benefits at all other than perhaps the psychosomatic ones. You get tigers killed off for top dollar and farms full of bears painfully farmed for their bile as well as a variety of other species. It is a shame that ignorance and superstition are leading many animals down the path of extinction. The thing is, it is hard to educate anyone when there is such a long tradition of some of these medicines being used.

By: DARHOP

DARHOP — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:58:53 +0000

BEAUTIFUL animal! What a shame some peoples beliefs are going to be the demise of such a creature. Hopefully these people will soon understand the future of these animals. And stop their extinction, by stopping these so called medicines.

By: pgb7112000

pgb7112000 — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:42:57 +0000

As much as I enjoy this type of news, I always have this sense of dread that poachers have access to the internet also, and will use this information to hunt these animals into actual extinction. I wish this tiger luck, but unless the Chinese appetite for pseudo-medicines derived from tigers and bears is diminished, we will eventually be reading stories about their demise on this site.

By: kittenz

kittenz — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:15:28 +0000

Yes! This is terrific news! Now if only the Chinese people would stop using tiger body parts and bones for “medicine”. Maybe they can be brought to realize that the true medicinal value of tigers lies with sharing the Earth with the living animals.

By: imamonkey

imamonkey — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 23:46:43 +0000

Wow! That is so great. I love tigers and to hear that that they are seeing a thought to be extinct species in the wild is amazing. Yay!!