Chinese preserve tiger cells for cloning

Amid China’s push to lift the ban on tiger products, Chinese scientists have started preserving somatic cells of south China tiger, a species thought to be extinct in the wild, in order to clone them in future.

Experts with Guangzhou Zoo and South China Agricultural University believe south China tigers are extinct in the wild. Only 68 have bred in captivity at zoos and these are all descendants of two male and four female tigers caught in the 1950s and 1970s, Xinhua reported. Unless more are found in the wild, these zoo-bred tigers will eventually die out because of inbreeding.

However, some scientists believe the south China tiger still exists in the remote subtropical forests in the west. “We saw footprints, heard bellows and talked to villagers who had seen the big cats,” said Professor Liu Shifeng, Northwest China University.

The Shaanxi forestry administration said it plans to build Zhenping county into a new habitat for the tigers.