CHINA: A rare male South China Tiger leaves for South Africa to boost a dwindling tiger population by participating in a breeding programme

Record ID: 606485

  • Title: CHINA: A rare male South China Tiger leaves for South Africa to boost a dwindling tiger population by participating in a breeding programme
  • Date: 27th April 2007
  • Summary: NEWS CONFERENCE BY SAVE CHINA'S TIGERS LOGO OF SAVE CHINA'S TIGERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) LI QUAN, FOUNDER OF SAVE CHINA'S TIGERS, SAYING: "The Chinese government actually started experiments in China but it didn't really go very far. And that's why we've proposed to do this in South Africa. There are quite amenable, South Africa offers land, expertise and prey animals. So it facilitates the tiger rewilding in a much quicker and faster way." 19 JOURNALISTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE LU JUN, ASSOCIATE RESEARCH PROFESSOR, NATIONAL WILDLIFE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER, AT PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) LU JUN, ASSOCIATE RESEARCH PROFESSOR, NATIONAL WILDLIFE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER, SAYING: "Also, at the same time, we would be choosing from a few areas from the original habitat of the South China tigers to rebuild. This is to create a conducive environment so that we can bring those tigers that can sufficiently survive in the wild back to China. Then, they can survive and breed in those areas."
  • Embargoed: 12th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Nature / Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVA594VFXOSPVLTR71IF7EDAKP3D
  • Story Text: China's Suzhou (pron: soo-chow) South China Tiger Reserve has sent a male South China tiger to South Africa for a breeding programme on Monday (April 23).
    The unnamed tiger, known simply by the number 327 as stated in its breed registry, is the fifth South China tiger sent to South Africa as part of the ambitious rewilding programme, which is seen as the last chance to save the species from extinction.
    The programme was being promoted a few years ago by the charity organisation Save China's Tigers to rehabilitate captive tigers and reintroduce them to the wild.
    Two pairs of male and female tigers have been sent to South Africa's Laohu (pron: lao-hoo) Valley Reserve since September 2003. "Laohu" means tiger in Mandarin.
    The two pairs, "Hope" and "Cathay" and younger tigers "Tiger Woods" and "Madonna" were the pilots in the groundbreaking experiment - a "rewilding programme" aimed at encouraging the animals to hunt on their own, breed and impart their hunting skills to their offspring.
    However, "Hope" had died of illness two years ago and as female "Cathay" grows to sexual maturity, zookeepers could not afford to miss an opportunity for the tigers to mate. The younger tiger pair have not reached the age of sexual maturity yet.
    Thus, a decision was made to send the four-year-old "327" to South Africa as a replacement for "Hope". "327" would not participate in the rewilding part of the programme as he is deemed too old to learn the skills.
    Li Quan (pron: lee-chooann), the founder of Save China's tigers, said South Africa was chosen because initial efforts by China to start a rewilding programme were not successful.
    "The Chinese government actually started experiments in China but it didn't really go very far. And that's why we've proposed to do this in South Africa. There are quite amenable, South Africa offers land, expertise and prey animals. So it facilitates the tiger rewilding in a much quicker and faster way," she said.
    The rewilding programme has had initial success as the tigers moved from hunting birds to bigger prey like the blesbok, a white-faced African antelope that is similar in size to the deer species the tigers would encounter in the wild in China.
    However, critics say the problem is that South Africa's fairly open and rocky landscape differs markedly from the natural forested habitat of the tigers in southern China.
    But officials involved in the programme said China was willing to give the programme a try because with only about 10 to 30 left in the wild and another 60 in captivity, the Chinese sub-species of the tiger clan is perched precariously on the brink of oblivion.
    All five tiger sub-species, including the Bengals of India and the huge Siberians of Russia's far east, are highly endangered.
    "327" will thus be the newest recruit at the Laohu Valley Reserve - a huge 33,000 hectares (81,540 acres) comprised of 17 former sheep farms tucked in a dry and dusty corner of South Africa's Free State province.
    China is working on rebuilding a wildlife tiger habitat to house the tigers who have gone through the rewilding programme and hopes to bring them back to the country next year.
    "Also, at the same time, we would be choosing from a few areas from the original habitat of the South China tigers to rebuild. This is to create a conducive environment so that we can bring those tigers that can sufficiently survive in the wild back to China. Then, they can survive and breed in those areas," said Lu Jun (pron: loo-jeen), associate research professor at the National Wildlife Research and Development Center.
    Feared as man-eaters but revered as majestic symbols of the wild, there are only a few thousand of the striped cats left in Asia, where they are being squeezed out by habitat loss in the face of swelling human populations.
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