Chinese Tigers Rehab in South Africa

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, September 03, 2003

Chinese Tigers Rehab in South Africa

Two endangered Chinese tigers set their foot upon the African continent and start to rehab in Pretoria on Tuesday after a long journey from China's capital of Beijing.

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Chinese Tigers Rehab in South Africa

Two endangered Chinese tigers set their foot upon the African continent and start to rehab in Pretoria on Tuesday after a long journey from China's capital of Beijing.

This translocation represents the first time that Chinese tigers have left the People's Republic of China. It also marks the first time that a large cat, such as the tiger, is given a chance of survival through a large-scale international reintroduction effort.

"Save China's Tigers" team and four Chinese officials were accompanying the cubs during the long journey. Chinese Ambassador Liu Guijin hailed: "It indicates that the friendly cooperation between China and South Africa has been expanded to a new area."

Namande Mapetla, Chairperson of the Council for the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa, extended her warmest welcome to the Chinese tigers, saying that it was certainly the most memorable day for two extremely rare tiger cubs to come to South Africa from China. She also wished them good luck and happy life here.

Both cubs, who were born in Shanghai Zoo in January and February this year, will be taught how to hunt for their food at a nature reserve north of Pretoria. They will be back to China as the mascot of the 2008 Beijing Olympic game.

The female cub is named "Cathay" while the male is named "Hope". They will initially be housed for two weeks in the facilities of the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa in Pretoria to undergo the necessary quarantine and veterinary checks. Then they will be taken to another Zoo property of 500 hectares situated in Makopani, north of Pretoria, for the first stage of rewilding training.

Willie Labuschagne, Director of the National Zoological Gardens, said: "We recognize that the future survival of the world's most threatened animal species will depend on the successful interaction between ex-situ and in-situ breeding and reintroduction programs."

"With only 60 Chinese tigers left in zoos and less than 30 in the wild, we have to take this drastic measure to save them from likely extinction," said Li Quan, who engineered the project.

She said that by recruiting South African expertise, it opens an extraordinary channel of mutual exchange and skills transfer in wildlife management between the two countries, adding, "South Africa is renowned for its skills in conservation which was the reason to assist us with this project."

The cubs, who currently do not possess any ability to survive in the wild, will be the first Chinese tigers to undergo the scientific experiment. Three to seven more cubs will join them in the next five years.

These Chinese tigers or their offspring who will have gained ability to survive in the wild, will be returned to a Chinese tiger pilot reserve to be established in the next five years in China.

While these tigers are being trained to hunt in South Africa, Chinese and South African ecologists will embark on the preparation of their new home in China for the tigers' return by surveying land, restoring habitat and prey, starting this October.

In an agreement signed in Beijing on Nov. 26 last year between "Save China's Tigers" and the Wildlife Research Center of the State Forestry Administration of China and the Chinese Tigers South Africa Trust, the project to reintroduce the Chinese tiger into the wild was launched.

For over a decade, China's State Forestry Administration has been leading the effort to save this critically endangered tiger species, which are believed to number less than 30 animals in the wild and only 60 surviving in Chinese zoos through the establishment of several nature reserves.

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