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). "
