Chinese Tigers Learn Hunting, Survival Skills in Africa

Leon Marshall in Johannesburg
for National Geographic News

March 2, 2005

On a grassy plain in South Africa, thousands of miles from home, four
zoo-bred South China tiger cubs are learning to hunt in the wild.

The hope is that they will one day pass on their skills to their offspring, allowing the next generation to return to wildlife reserves in China, where they will be able to fend for themselves and propagate their species.

Four decades ago, approximately 4,000 South China tigers lived in the wild. Today there are only about 30. An additional 64 live in 19 zoos in China.

The tigers are in more danger of extinction than China's most famous animal, the giant panda, according to Cai Qinhui, chief veterinarian of Guangzhou Zoo in southern China's Guangdong Province.

The 64 captive tigers in China are all descendants of six wild animals seized in 1956. Inbreeding is a major problem. Compared to their wild ancestors, the tigers in captivity are smaller, weaker, and more prone to disease.

In addition, the male tigers in captivity have low sperm counts and show little interest in the females—a sure path to extinction. Newborns have a high rate of birth defects and a lower survival rate. Lifelong captivity has added to the South China tiger's problems. Pollution and a diet containing food additives have contributed to about half the old tigers dying of cancers.

Stepping into the void, Li Quan, a native of Beijing who formerly headed Gucci's worldwide licensing business, founded Save China's Tigers. In November 2002 the foundation negotiated an agreement between China and South Africa for a joint project designed to reintroduce the offspring of zoo animals back into the wild.

She chose South Africa as a partner because of the country's track record in conservation issues.

"Wherever I went in southern Africa, I found South Africans involved in such projects," Li said. "I thought they must be the best. I eventually persuaded the Chinese government to work with them. I pointed out they had saved endangered species like rhinos and were not desktop scientists."

Building Skills in the Wild

Two pairs of cubs—one-year-old Hope and Cathay and six-month-old Tiger Woods and Madonna—are currently living in separate enclosures on an 81,500-acre (33,000-hectare) estate in the semidesert Karoo region of South Africa. The estate was purchased by Li's husband, international banker Stuart Bray.

The cubs' new playground, called Laohu Valley Reserve—in rough translation, Laohu means "old tiger" in Chinese—spans the Orange River. Two-thirds of the reserve falls in the grassy Free State Province, the rest is shrubland in the Northern Cape Province.

The cubs were born in captivity in China and removed from their mothers when they were three months old. Their first home in South Africa was a one-acre (0.4-hectare) quarantine camp where they stayed for a month. Their next home was a ten-acre (four-hectare) enclosure, where they lived for three months to help them adapt gradually to life outside a cage.

Old instincts kicked in when a small antelope strayed into the older pair's enclosure and they pounced. Now just a few months on, and living in a 150-acre (60 hectare) camp, they have become remarkably skilled hunters, said Ronel Openshaw, South Africa's liaison officer for the project. She said they now catch their own blesbok, a medium-size African antelope.

To Petri Viljoen, the South African conservationist in charge of the project, this was exciting progress.

"It took weeks to get them to eat chicken, accustomed as they were to being fed beef at the zoo in China where they were born," Viljoen said. "It took months of practice to hunt a live animal and then make the link between the kill and food. When the two cubs first arrived in South Africa, they didn't even want to leave their cages and prowl the rocky, thorny African veld," he said.

"They were used to the concrete floors of their cages and were reluctant at first to step onto our soil," Ronel Openshaw said.

The two older cubs seem to be overcoming the romance problem. Although only 20 months old, Hope has already started making amorous advances to Cathay. South China tigers, Panthera tigris amoyensis, generally begin to reproduce at about three years old, so they're too young for anything to come of it, says Peter Openshaw, who manages the reserve. "The two are about to move into a securely fenced 14,800-acre (6,000-hectare) camp which is where they take care of themselves," Peter Openshaw said. "But we also fit them with radio collars to monitor their movements and hunting success. We will give them additional food if they have difficulty coping."

Graduating From the Zoo

All four animals will eventually return to zoos in China, but their offspring will be returned to wildlife reserves. The pioneering pairs' cubs will grow up utterly wild, without contact with humans, Peter Openshaw said. The aim is for the first rehabilitated tigers to go to reserves developed in China by 2008, to coincide with the Olympic Games in Beijing.

A joint South African-Chinese team has identified two potential tiger reserves in China, one of about 40 square miles (100 square kilometers) and another of about 30 square miles (180 square kilometers), Li said.

One or both could ultimately be chosen. South African specialists are helping with the rehabilitation of both. Hunting and logging have been stopped, the habitat is being restored, and suitable prey animals will be introduced for the tigers to hunt.

The project has drawn some criticism.

Gus Mills, head of the Carnivore Conservation Group and research fellow of South African National Parks, worries about the tigers' ability to transition from one habitat—the African veld—to a completely different ecosystem and prey base in China.

Petri Viljoen is not concerned, saying most large predator species are very adaptable to a wide range of conditions, and the tiger appears to be no exception.

"Free-ranging large carnivores frequently have to cope with changing prey regimes and consequently have to change their diet accordingly when they hunt certain prey species which were perhaps never, or seldom, taken before," he said.

"Adapting from hunting certain African antelope to Asian deer, for example, should therefore not present a major adaptation problem for these tigers. Of course, there is never a guarantee in animal relocation or reintroduction attempts."

Ideally the entire program should be conducted in China, Viljoen said.

"But time is running out fast, and it could well be too late to wait first for the development of a suitable area in China before establishing an effective rewilding program," he said.

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