HANGZHOU - A Siberian tiger smuggler has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for illegally purchasing an endangered species, by a court in east China.

Wang, 31, a native of Jiangxi Province, was fined 50,000 yuan (8,000 U.S. dollars) by Lucheng District People's Court in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province.

Wang and another man, Yang, were caught with the dead tiger on Jan. 8 in downtown Wenzhou. Wang was captured by police but Yang fled.

Yang bought the tiger in Anhui Province on Jan. 5 for 190,000 yuan and transported it to Wenzhou, where he planned to sell it to Wang for 250,000 yuan.

The State Forestry Administration confirmed the animal, now in the refrigeration house of Wenzhou Zoo, was a Siberian tiger, but the cause of death and origin of the tiger were not specified as the seller in Anhui has not been found.

Yang, who has since been arrested, is awaiting trial in Wenzhou on the same charges.

Siberian tigers, one of the world's rarest mammals, mainly live in eastern Russia, northeast China, and northern parts of the Korean Peninsula. Fewer than 500 Siberian tigers remain in the wild.

China puts its own number of wild Siberian tigers between 18 and 22.