Save China's Tigers
Encyclopedia
Save China's Tigers is an international charitable foundation based in Hong Kong
, the United States
, and the United Kingdom
(Office in London
) which aims to save the big cats of China from extinction. It focuses on the Chinese
tiger
s (South China Tigers). It also has branches in Mainland China
and South Africa
.
The organisation's vision is to raise awareness of the plight of the Chinese tiger and to strive for its protection and preservation through public education, introduction and experimentation with advanced conservation
models in China
and abroad, and raising funds to support these initiatives. Another aim is to act as a liaison for all those organisations concerned with the conservation of China's wildlife
, sustainable development
, biodiversity
and habitat
.
The purpose of Save China's Tigers is to reverse the fate of the South China Tiger
from the brink of extinction
by taking them out of zoos, breeding them, letting them regain their hunting abilities, and reintroducing them back to China's wild. The organisation's stated goal is to save the South China Tiger using this new method of rehabilitation and reintroduction.
No captive-born large predators have ever been successfully reintroduced into the wild before.
It is an experiment to attempt to save a large carnivore
by re-introducing them into the wild. To achieve this goal, Save China's Tigers is using a combination of in-situ
and ex-situ conservation
. The organization is aiming to set a precedent for international wildlife conservation and for zoos throughout the world.
"Save China's Tigers" was founded in 2000 by Li Quan, former fashion executive at Gucci
, Benetton
and Fila
in Italy. When Li Quan realized the dire state of the South China Tigers in the wild and saw the poor conditions in which captive South China Tigers were living in China several years ago, she devoted herself to save the tigers. She established the charitable foundation Save China’s Tigers in the UK in 2000, and subsequently in the US (2002) and Hong Kong
(2003). She engineered the Chinese Tiger Conservation Model after observing and analysing how wildlife conservation and eco-tourism have succeeded in Africa.
In 2001, Li Quan proposed to China to use South African expertise to help China’s Chinese Tiger Rehabilitation & Reintroduction project, which the Chinese started in the 1990s, and invited a South African Team to visit China.
To commemorate the 10th Anniversary of their establishment, Save China's Tigers released a photo documentary book known as "Rewilded".
" was coined by conservationist and activist Dave Foreman
, first occurring in print in 1990. The concept was further defined and expanded by conservation biologists Michael Soulé and Reed Noss in a paper published in 1998. According to Soulé and Noss, rewilding is a conservation method based on "cores, corridors, and carnivores."
The word was first independently used in 2003 by Gus Van Dyk in the concept of carnivore rewilding (having no prior knowledge of its meaning referred to by Foremen and Soule), conservationist and ex-carnivore manager of Pilanesberg National Park, in an effort to find the most appropriate translation of the Chinese term “野化”.”
In order to be successfully reintroduced into a wild environment, tigers must know how to hunt prey and have to be able to defend themselves. Once in captivity
, an animal will gradually lose its ability to survive in the wild, and will likely die if released. Thus Save China's Tigers started a rehabilitation programme to help captive tigers regain their survival skills. Rehabilitation steps taken by the project include feeding the tigers with carcasses of small game. Once the tigers are eating the new food items, live animals similar to those taken dead will be occasionally introduced into large hunting camps.
The SPCA claimed that this process was cruel to the prey, but the courts refused to issue an interdict in terms of South African law.
There are plans to introduce larger games into larger camp like the Blue wildebeest
; the tigers have already been provided with wildebeest
carcasses
. The prey needed for wild training of the tigers do not have to be the same as those in the original food chain
of the tigers, as once a tiger knows how to hunt wild animals of a given size, it should be able to transfer those skills to hunting in the wild.
Ideally, a former zoo tiger which has been rewilded and reintroduced into a natural habitat will not only be able to survive in the wild, but pass necessary skills on to any offspring, thus contributing to the survival of the species. Save China’s Tigers has also proved that not only zoo tigers can learn to hunt, they can also learn to hunt by themselves through the “adaptive process”. The roles of humans are limited to that monitoring and providing a suitable environment.
Results of a 2010 workshop attended by numerous international experts confirmed the important role of the South China Tiger Rewilding Project in tiger conservation. “Having seen the tigers hunting in an open environment at Laohu Valley Reserve, I believe that these rewilded tigers have the skill to hunt in any environment.” Dr. David Smith remarked. As part of the rewilding process, the Save China's Tigers team has assisted in the recovery and rehabilitation of natural habitat both in China and in South Africa
in the Free State
. It has been created with the aims of rewilding captive-born South China tigers and for South African biodiversity conservation in general. LVR was created in 2002 out of 17 defunct sheep farms, and efforts to return the overgrazed land to natural status are ongoing. The South China Tigers at LVR for rewilding are kept confined to a tiger-proof camp complex of roughly 1.8 square kilometers, with other areas of the reserve being used to protect native South African species. The word "laohu" is a Chinese term for tiger.
Li Quan initially enlisted the help of John Varty
(wildlife filmmaker) and Dave Varty (eco-tourism developer) in South Africa to assist in the rehabilitation process. However, Li Quan and her husband, investment banker Stuart Bray, became concerned that the Varty's were misusing the project's funds to buy land for themselves. Later, in July 2002, the Varty's admitted to borrowing a small portion of Bray's money. After a legal audit, it was discovered that over R5-million had been borrowed by the Varty's, having been used to pay off the Varty's Londolozi Productions’ debt, on unauthorised salaries and were also said to have gone into the Varty's personal loan accounts and towards paying off their Betty's Bay seaside property. Finally, in October 2002, a few weeks before an agreement was due to be signed with Chinese authorities after the Chinese Wildlife Department began to recognize the project's conservation value, the Varty's pulled out of the project. John Varty has since founded his own "tiger rewilding" project, Tiger Canyons, also near Philippolis, using the land he acquired using Bray's funds. However, Tiger Canyons uses unendangered, hybrid breeds of tigers and has been criticized as having no conservation value and only being used for the purpose of creating the film Living With Tigers, which would air on Discovery Channel
.
, and being considered as an alien species will affect South African biodiversity
negatively if they were brought to Africa.
However, the project will not face this problem as Laohu Valley reserve is converted from 17 pieces of defunct sheep farms that were overgrazed and therefore no healthy ecosystem
s existed there at all. In addition, the tigers are in camps - fenced off, hence the South China Tigers would not be able to roam outside of Laohu Valley reserve thus there is no contact between the South China Tigers and any healthy eco-system that exist nearby. On the other hand, instead of having negative effects on Africa's biodiversity, the project actually have positive effects on the biodiversity. This is because the defunct sheep farms are restored and converted to wildlife reserve. This can be considered the contribution of the Chinese tiger to the biodiversity of South Africa. Without the Chinese tigers, the project would never purchase the land for the project in South Africa.
Furthermore, due to the action spearheaded by Save China's Tigers, other efforts to convert defunct sheep farms to wildlife farms in this area have been gaining speed. In other words, SCT is a leader in restoring South African biodiversity in the area of Phillippolis of Free State in South Africa.
The prey menu of tiger and lion is alike. Save China's Tigers do not believe there will be any side-effect to the local ecology.
Li Quan persuaded the Chinese government to allow her to bring several captive South China tigers to Africa, where they can start their rewilding
training. To date, five South China tigers have left the zoos of China and been sent to South Africa for re-wilding training. These tigers include:
The breeding program has successfully produced several tiger cubs, including:
With the birth of these cubs, 10 South China Tigers are in the care of Save China's Tigers - more than 10% of the world population of the world’s most critically endangered tiger.
A large difficulty faced by the project is the limited gene pool for South China Tigers - all of the South China Tigers in Chinese zoos are descended from only 6 individuals caught in the 1950s. Since these tigers in captivity have been reproducing with close relatives, the quality of their genes is deteriorating. The project plans to improve living conditions and breed them scientifically - to this end a breeding centre, the David Tang Tiger Breeding Center, has been constructed at the Laohu Valley Reserve.
Mainstream conservationists are however not impressed. The WWF
says that the money is being spent in the wrong place and that the Amur Tiger
has a better chance of survival.
The biggest obstacles are from man-made resistance, some organizations in China or from abroad kept raising objections and condemn the strategy used to save the tigers, telling the organization to give up. To SCT, these obstacles make the tiger salvation program even tougher.
Proponents of the Chinese Tiger Project argue that the South China Tiger
is not only the most ancient tiger species in the world from which all other tiger subspecies
are derived, it has been a cultural symbol of China for eight thousand years, so that it from the brink of extinction would have a great cultural impact.
, conservation, and reintroduction
efforts for highly endangered and vulnerable wild cats. Historically, funding in wild cat conservation has favoured the large, charismatic species. While giving priorities to cat species having the IUCN “Endangered” status or above, the Wildcat Fund encourages projects conducting pioneering biological and ecological research of little known cat species in an effort to increase understanding of these species and help design improved conservation techniques.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
(Office in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) which aims to save the big cats of China from extinction. It focuses on the Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
tiger
Tiger
The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...
s (South China Tigers). It also has branches in Mainland China
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
Aims
Wildlife management
Wildlife management attempts to balance the needs of wildlife with the needs of people using the best available science. Wildlife management can include game keeping, wildlife conservation and pest control...
models in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and abroad, and raising funds to support these initiatives. Another aim is to act as a liaison for all those organisations concerned with the conservation of China's wildlife
Wildlife
Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....
, sustainable development
Sustainable development
Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...
, biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
and habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
.
The purpose of Save China's Tigers is to reverse the fate of the South China Tiger
South China Tiger
The South China tiger is a tiger subspecies that originated in southern China and northern Indochina and has been classified as critically endangered by IUCN since 1996 as it is possibly extinct in the wild....
from the brink of extinction
Extinction
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...
by taking them out of zoos, breeding them, letting them regain their hunting abilities, and reintroducing them back to China's wild. The organisation's stated goal is to save the South China Tiger using this new method of rehabilitation and reintroduction.
No captive-born large predators have ever been successfully reintroduced into the wild before.
It is an experiment to attempt to save a large carnivore
Carnivore
A carnivore meaning 'meat eater' is an organism that derives its energy and nutrient requirements from a diet consisting mainly or exclusively of animal tissue, whether through predation or scavenging...
by re-introducing them into the wild. To achieve this goal, Save China's Tigers is using a combination of in-situ
In-situ conservation
In-situ conservation is on-site conservation or the conservation of genetic resources in natural populations of plant or animal species, such as forest genetic resources in natural populations of tree species...
and ex-situ conservation
Ex-situ conservation
Ex-situ conservation means literally, "off-site conservation". It is the process of protecting an endangered species of plant or animal outside of its natural habitat; for example, by removing part of the population from a threatened habitat and placing it in a new location, which may be a wild...
. The organization is aiming to set a precedent for international wildlife conservation and for zoos throughout the world.
History
Gucci
The House of Gucci, better known simply as Gucci , is an Italian fashion and leather goods label, part of the Gucci Group, which is owned by French company PPR...
, Benetton
Benetton Group
Benetton Group S.p.A. is a global luxury fashion brand, based in Treviso, Italy. The name comes from the Benetton family who founded the company in 1965. Benetton Group is listed in Milan....
and Fila
Fila (company)
Fila is one of the world's largest sportswear manufacturing companies. Founded in 1911 in Italy, Fila has been owned and operated from South Korea since a takeover in 2007. Headed by chairman and CEO Yoon-Soo Yoon, Fila now has offices in 11 countries worldwide....
in Italy. When Li Quan realized the dire state of the South China Tigers in the wild and saw the poor conditions in which captive South China Tigers were living in China several years ago, she devoted herself to save the tigers. She established the charitable foundation Save China’s Tigers in the UK in 2000, and subsequently in the US (2002) and Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
(2003). She engineered the Chinese Tiger Conservation Model after observing and analysing how wildlife conservation and eco-tourism have succeeded in Africa.
In 2001, Li Quan proposed to China to use South African expertise to help China’s Chinese Tiger Rehabilitation & Reintroduction project, which the Chinese started in the 1990s, and invited a South African Team to visit China.
To commemorate the 10th Anniversary of their establishment, Save China's Tigers released a photo documentary book known as "Rewilded".
Origin
The word "rewildingRewilding
Rewilding may refer to:* Rewilding , the return of habitats to a natural state* Rewilding , the reversal of human "domestication"* Rewilding , a thoroughbred racehorse...
" was coined by conservationist and activist Dave Foreman
David Foreman
Dave Foreman is a US environmentalist and co-founder of the radical environmental movement Earth First!-Work with The Wilderness Society:...
, first occurring in print in 1990. The concept was further defined and expanded by conservation biologists Michael Soulé and Reed Noss in a paper published in 1998. According to Soulé and Noss, rewilding is a conservation method based on "cores, corridors, and carnivores."
The word was first independently used in 2003 by Gus Van Dyk in the concept of carnivore rewilding (having no prior knowledge of its meaning referred to by Foremen and Soule), conservationist and ex-carnivore manager of Pilanesberg National Park, in an effort to find the most appropriate translation of the Chinese term “野化”.”
The rewilding process
Captivity (animal)
Animals that live under human care are in captivity. Captivity can be used as a generalizing term to describe the keeping of either domesticated animals or wild animals. This may include for example farms, private homes and zoos...
, an animal will gradually lose its ability to survive in the wild, and will likely die if released. Thus Save China's Tigers started a rehabilitation programme to help captive tigers regain their survival skills. Rehabilitation steps taken by the project include feeding the tigers with carcasses of small game. Once the tigers are eating the new food items, live animals similar to those taken dead will be occasionally introduced into large hunting camps.
The SPCA claimed that this process was cruel to the prey, but the courts refused to issue an interdict in terms of South African law.
There are plans to introduce larger games into larger camp like the Blue wildebeest
Blue Wildebeest
The Blue Wildebeest , also called the Common Wildebeest, is a large antelope and one of two species of wildebeest. It grows to 115–145 cm shoulder height and attains a body mass of 168–274 kg. They range the open plains, bushveld and dry woodlands of Southern and East Africa, living for...
; the tigers have already been provided with wildebeest
Wildebeest
The wildebeest , also called the gnu is an antelope of the genus Connochaetes. It is a hooved mammal...
carcasses
Carrion
Carrion refers to the carcass of a dead animal. Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters include vultures, hawks, eagles, hyenas, Virginia Opossum, Tasmanian Devils, coyotes, Komodo dragons, and burying beetles...
. The prey needed for wild training of the tigers do not have to be the same as those in the original food chain
Food chain
A food web depicts feeding connections in an ecological community. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one of two categories called trophic levels: 1) the autotrophs, and 2) the heterotrophs...
of the tigers, as once a tiger knows how to hunt wild animals of a given size, it should be able to transfer those skills to hunting in the wild.
Ideally, a former zoo tiger which has been rewilded and reintroduced into a natural habitat will not only be able to survive in the wild, but pass necessary skills on to any offspring, thus contributing to the survival of the species. Save China’s Tigers has also proved that not only zoo tigers can learn to hunt, they can also learn to hunt by themselves through the “adaptive process”. The roles of humans are limited to that monitoring and providing a suitable environment.
Results of a 2010 workshop attended by numerous international experts confirmed the important role of the South China Tiger Rewilding Project in tiger conservation. “Having seen the tigers hunting in an open environment at Laohu Valley Reserve, I believe that these rewilded tigers have the skill to hunt in any environment.” Dr. David Smith remarked. As part of the rewilding process, the Save China's Tigers team has assisted in the recovery and rehabilitation of natural habitat both in China and in South Africa
The Laohu Valley Reserve
The Laohu Valley Reserve (LVR) is a roughly 350 square kilometer private reserve near PhilippolisPhilippolis
Philippolis is a small town in the Free State province of South Africa. It was founded as a missionary outpost for the Bushman in 1823, making it the oldest settlement in the Free State. It was named after John Philip of the London Missionary Society. Adam Kok II, a Griqua leader, settled here with...
in the Free State
Free State
The Free State is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bloemfontein, which is also South Africa's judicial capital. Its historical origins lie in the Orange Free State Boer republic and later Orange Free State Province. The current borders of the province date from 1994 when the Bantustans...
. It has been created with the aims of rewilding captive-born South China tigers and for South African biodiversity conservation in general. LVR was created in 2002 out of 17 defunct sheep farms, and efforts to return the overgrazed land to natural status are ongoing. The South China Tigers at LVR for rewilding are kept confined to a tiger-proof camp complex of roughly 1.8 square kilometers, with other areas of the reserve being used to protect native South African species. The word "laohu" is a Chinese term for tiger.
Li Quan initially enlisted the help of John Varty
John Varty
John Varty is a controversial South African wildlife filmmaker who has made more than 30 documentaries and one feature film. Varty is also leading a controversial project which aims to create a free-ranging, self-sustaining tiger population outside of Asia...
(wildlife filmmaker) and Dave Varty (eco-tourism developer) in South Africa to assist in the rehabilitation process. However, Li Quan and her husband, investment banker Stuart Bray, became concerned that the Varty's were misusing the project's funds to buy land for themselves. Later, in July 2002, the Varty's admitted to borrowing a small portion of Bray's money. After a legal audit, it was discovered that over R5-million had been borrowed by the Varty's, having been used to pay off the Varty's Londolozi Productions’ debt, on unauthorised salaries and were also said to have gone into the Varty's personal loan accounts and towards paying off their Betty's Bay seaside property. Finally, in October 2002, a few weeks before an agreement was due to be signed with Chinese authorities after the Chinese Wildlife Department began to recognize the project's conservation value, the Varty's pulled out of the project. John Varty has since founded his own "tiger rewilding" project, Tiger Canyons, also near Philippolis, using the land he acquired using Bray's funds. However, Tiger Canyons uses unendangered, hybrid breeds of tigers and has been criticized as having no conservation value and only being used for the purpose of creating the film Living With Tigers, which would air on Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
.
Effects of tigers on South Africa's ecosystem and biodiversity
There are some people who oppose the project because they are afraid that the tigers, which are not naturally found in AfricaAfrica
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and being considered as an alien species will affect South African biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
negatively if they were brought to Africa.
However, the project will not face this problem as Laohu Valley reserve is converted from 17 pieces of defunct sheep farms that were overgrazed and therefore no healthy ecosystem
Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
s existed there at all. In addition, the tigers are in camps - fenced off, hence the South China Tigers would not be able to roam outside of Laohu Valley reserve thus there is no contact between the South China Tigers and any healthy eco-system that exist nearby. On the other hand, instead of having negative effects on Africa's biodiversity, the project actually have positive effects on the biodiversity. This is because the defunct sheep farms are restored and converted to wildlife reserve. This can be considered the contribution of the Chinese tiger to the biodiversity of South Africa. Without the Chinese tigers, the project would never purchase the land for the project in South Africa.
Furthermore, due to the action spearheaded by Save China's Tigers, other efforts to convert defunct sheep farms to wildlife farms in this area have been gaining speed. In other words, SCT is a leader in restoring South African biodiversity in the area of Phillippolis of Free State in South Africa.
The prey menu of tiger and lion is alike. Save China's Tigers do not believe there will be any side-effect to the local ecology.
The tigers involved
Rewilding
Rewilding may refer to:* Rewilding , the return of habitats to a natural state* Rewilding , the reversal of human "domestication"* Rewilding , a thoroughbred racehorse...
training. To date, five South China tigers have left the zoos of China and been sent to South Africa for re-wilding training. These tigers include:
- Hope, born on 17 February 2003, got his name from readers of the Sunday People, a BritishUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
newspaperNewspaperA newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
. He died on 20 August 2005 in South Africa. His autopsyAutopsyAn autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
report suggested that the primary cause of death was pneumoniaPneumoniaPneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
and heart failure. Conclusion was that the tiger was suffering from immunosuppressionImmunosuppressionImmunosuppression involves an act that reduces the activation or efficacy of the immune system. Some portions of the immune system itself have immuno-suppressive effects on other parts of the immune system, and immunosuppression may occur as an adverse reaction to treatment of other...
, supported by the presence of opportunistic bacteria that are normally only found replicating in animals that are immune compromised. - Cathay, The female tiger born on 21 January 2003, is named Cathay in acknowledgement of Cathay Pacific Airways that sponsored the transportation of the Chinese tigers till 2008.
- Tigerwoods, male tiger, born on March 9, 2004. He is the father of most of Cathay's and Madonna's cubs.
- Madonna, tigress, born on April 20, 2004. She gave birth to two cubs in April 2008 but unfortunately the first was a stillbornStillbirthA stillbirth occurs when a fetus has died in the uterus. The Australian definition specifies that fetal death is termed a stillbirth after 20 weeks gestation or the fetus weighs more than . Once the fetus has died the mother still has contractions and remains undelivered. The term is often used in...
, and the second died of heart failure a week after its birth. - Stud Tiger 327, this stud male - registered as No. 327 in the Studbook Registry of the Zoological Association of China, does not yet have a name. His main role is to replace Hope, as a mate for Cathay. He is chosen for the project because he is a healthy looking stud tiger, one of the finer tigers in SuzhouSuzhouSuzhou , previously transliterated as Su-chou, Suchow, and Soochow, is a major city located in the southeast of Jiangsu Province in Eastern China, located adjacent to Shanghai Municipality. The city is situated on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Taihu Lake and is a part...
reserve. He has fathered 3 cubs with Cathay. On September 17th, 2011, 327 broke through an electrified fence which separates him from Tigerwoods. SCT staffs managed the separate the two animals within five minutes of skirmish, but 327 was already fatally wounded. Veterinarian has confirmed its death to be due to throat injuries.
The breeding program has successfully produced several tiger cubs, including:
- Huloo, a male offspring of Tigerwoods and Cathay was born on 23 November 2007, was the first cub to be born through the project. He was separated from his mother at birth because of fears that he would die of exposure, and was hand reared at Lory Park Zoo until he was old enough to return to Laohu Valley.
- JenB, born on 30 March 2008, is a male offspringOffspringIn biology, offspring is the product of reproduction, of a new organism produced by one or more parents.Collective offspring may be known as a brood or progeny in a more general way...
of Tigerwoods and Cathay, was named after the late Jenifer Bone, of SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, to commemorate her donations to Save China's Tigers. - Coco, brother and littermate of JenB, was named using a naming contest sponsored by the Asian TigersAsian TigersThe Asian Tigers is a Pakistani militant group, first publicised when they claimed credit for the kidnapping of former Pakistani intelligence officers Khalid Khawaja, Colonel Imam, British journalist Asad Qureshi and Qureshi's driver Rustam Khan in March 2010. Khawaja was killed in April 2010....
group. - King Henry, born on August 18, 2008, the offspring of Tigerwoods and Madonna. King Henry was named in Honour of King Henry VIII Preparatory School’s Fundraising efforts for Save China's Tigers.
- Princess, sister and littermate of King Henry, is the first female born through the Save China's Tigers program. Her survival will be vital for the breeding of future generations of rewilded South China Tigers in South Africa.
- Huwaa, a female cub born to Cathay and 327, was born on the 31st of January 2011.
With the birth of these cubs, 10 South China Tigers are in the care of Save China's Tigers - more than 10% of the world population of the world’s most critically endangered tiger.
Obstacles
Mainstream conservationists are however not impressed. The WWF
World Wide Fund for Nature
The World Wide Fund for Nature is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States...
says that the money is being spent in the wrong place and that the Amur Tiger
Amur Tiger
The Siberian tiger , also known as the Amur tiger, is a tiger subspecies inhabiting mainly the Sikhote Alin mountain region with a small subpopulation in southwest Primorye province in the Russian Far East. In 2005, there were 331–393 adult-subadult Amur tigers in this region, with a breeding adult...
has a better chance of survival.
The biggest obstacles are from man-made resistance, some organizations in China or from abroad kept raising objections and condemn the strategy used to save the tigers, telling the organization to give up. To SCT, these obstacles make the tiger salvation program even tougher.
Proponents of the Chinese Tiger Project argue that the South China Tiger
South China Tiger
The South China tiger is a tiger subspecies that originated in southern China and northern Indochina and has been classified as critically endangered by IUCN since 1996 as it is possibly extinct in the wild....
is not only the most ancient tiger species in the world from which all other tiger subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...
are derived, it has been a cultural symbol of China for eight thousand years, so that it from the brink of extinction would have a great cultural impact.
Establishment of South China Tiger reserves in China
Since 2001, Save China’s Tigers South African team has been working with the Chinese State Forestry Administration to identify locations for the reintroduction of the rewilded South China Tigers. Nine sites from four provinces were surveyed using 36 ecological parameters. Two candidate sites were selected in Jiangxi and Hunan province in early 2005, both of which were approved by the State Forestry Administration by the end of 2005. Due to the progress of Save China’s Tigers rewilding project, the Chinese authorities also decided to look for sites within the nature reserves where there would be fewer human population relocation issues. In early 2010, a government scientific team identified an interim test site and three final sites, which are now awaiting approval from the relevant central government department. Save China’s Tigers’ scientific team is assisting Chinese authorities with fencing technology, re-stocking prey, and building tiger and wildlife management expertise.Save China's Tigers contribution to other conservation areas
Save China's Tigers, a charitable foundation funding pioneering work with the South China Tiger, has broadened its scope of conservation goals from tigers to include all wild cats around the world. On 7 August 2009, it launched the "Wildcat Fund” to encourage and support wild cat researchResearch
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
, conservation, and reintroduction
Rewilding
Rewilding may refer to:* Rewilding , the return of habitats to a natural state* Rewilding , the reversal of human "domestication"* Rewilding , a thoroughbred racehorse...
efforts for highly endangered and vulnerable wild cats. Historically, funding in wild cat conservation has favoured the large, charismatic species. While giving priorities to cat species having the IUCN “Endangered” status or above, the Wildcat Fund encourages projects conducting pioneering biological and ecological research of little known cat species in an effort to increase understanding of these species and help design improved conservation techniques.
See also
- List of non-governmental organizations in the People's Republic of China
- Project TigerProject TigerProject Tiger was launched in 1972 in India. The project aims at ensuring a viable population of tigers in their natural habitats and preserving areas of biological importance as a natural heritage for the people. The selection of areas for the reserves represented as close as possible the...
, a similar tiger conservation program in IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
External links
- Save China's Tiger homepage, information regarding the rewilding project
- A video of the rare South China tiger hunting, the tigress in this video is Cathay from the Save China's Tiger re-wilding project
- A video of a South China Tiger named Hope tackling a blesbuck
- Keystone Progress of the Save China's tiger project
- Weekly Tiger Diaries, updated information of the South China tigers posted every week