February sees the Chinese celebrating their New Year and in the Chinese Zodiac 2010 falls in the Year of the Tiger. Many wildlife species are endangered, but it is now thought that the Wild Tiger is one of the most critically endangered of all. In the 20^th century three of the eight sub-species of tiger became extinct; the Balinese in 1937, the Caspian in the 1950’s and most recently the Javan in the 1980’s. The five remaining sub-species are all critically endangered – these are the Siberian, largest of the tigers, the Bengal, the Sumatran, the Indo-Chinese and the South China tiger. The Sumatran tiger is the smallest of the sub-species and the South China Tiger is closest to extinction, it is believed there may only be 10 in the wild. Although tiger derivatives are totally illegal and it has never been proven medically, tiger parts raise significant amounts of money because many Chinese believe they can cure certain ailments. Because of this and their increasing awareness of the need to conserve their wildlife, China has recently made changes to their animal welfare legislation and tightened their laws on the illegal hunting, trapping and farming of wild tigers.