An Indo-Chinese tiger stands inside its cage at the Hanoi Zoo November 26, 2004. The world's tiger population has plummeted by 95 percent from the start of the 20th century to as few as 5,000 now and is further threatened by the lucrative trade in their skins, officials told a forum in Hanoi on Friday. REUTERS / Kham By John Platt

The last Indochinese tiger in China was killed and eaten by a man who has now been sentenced to 12 years in prison for his crime. The Indochinese tiger (also known as Corbett’s tiger or Panthera tigris corbetti) is an endangered tiger subspecies that used to live in China, but now only exists in Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam, where it remains under heavy threat from poachers. Kang Wannian, the villager from Mengla, Yunnan Province, claims he killed the tiger last February in self-defense. But that didn’t stop him and four others from butchering and eating the animal. His dining mates were also convicted and will spend three to four years in jail for “covering up and concealing criminal gains,” according to a Tuesday report in the China National News. …

Man convicted for killing and eating China’s last Indochinese tiger