STRIPED PREDATORS ON THE SOUTH AFRICAN GRASSLANDS

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Rare Chinese tigers get last chance in Africa

By Laurie Goering

Originally published June 11, 2006

LAOHU VALLEY RESERVE, South Africa // South Africa has no shortage of big

wild cats. But the sleek predators prowling these dry grass plains at the

edge of the Karoo plateau have one big difference: stripes.

 

As part of a controversial experiment to save the world's most endangered

tiger, three rare zoo-bred South China tigers are learning to hunt antelope

and survive in the wild in South Africa's grasslands while conservationists

struggle to restore their nearly vanished habitat at home.

 

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With only about 60 of the tigers left in captivity, and almost none in the

wild, the experiment is a last-ditch effort to pull the South China tiger

back from the brink of extinction and create a viable new wild population,

with roots half a world away. The project hopes to return all the tigers to

China within 15 years.

 

" It's an extremely risky project. Some people have written the Chinese tiger

off. They argue we're spending money on a lost cause, " said Li Quan, 44, the

effort's founder, as she wrestled a truck through the rough scrub of the

tigers' 80,000-acre reserve. " But we have to try. "

 

South Africa has no native tigers, an Asian species. But with its vast,

well-managed game reserves, the country has a deep reservoir of expertise in

wildlife management and restoring animals to rehabilitated land. That,

combined with the country's abundant antelope populations and its relatively

inexpensive land, are the chief reasons the tiger rescue effort is happening

in Africa rather than in China.

 

Quan, a former Chinese fashion executive who heads the nonprofit Save

China's Tigers foundation. said that at home, hunting - uncontrolled until

recently - has left not only the tiger but most of its prey species

endangered. Land is also in short supply, one reason tiger populations have

plunged from an estimated 40,000 animals a century ago.

 

Adapting from a zoo cage to the African wilds has not been entirely easy for

the project's tigers. Since arriving as cubs in late 2003 and late 2004,

under an agreement with the Chinese government, the animals have suffered

bouts of ringworm, been bitten by baboons, had throat and gum infections and

shoulder sprains and gotten a few porcupine quills in the nose. One arrived

with broken baby teeth, apparently after gnawing the bars of an iron

transport cage in China.

 

Hunting, at first, did not come naturally. When a rooster was released into

a holding pen with the first pair of cubs, both predators and prey " just

stood there eyeing each other, " Quan remembers. When the rooster ran, the

cubs gave chase. When he stopped, they did too, looking puzzled.

 

Today, 3-year-old Cathay, the oldest and most experienced of the tigers, can

easily down a 180-pound blesbuck, one of a herd of the chocolate-colored

antelope roaming in the tigers' reserve, and deliver a killing bite, then

drag the animal into a secluded, shady spot along the Orange River that runs

through the reserve.

 

Two other younger tigers, named Tiger Woods and Madonna by project

supporters, similarly are gaining skill and recently downed two blesbuck.

 

" They can essentially sustain themselves, " said Petri Viljoen, a South

African zoologist who oversees the project. And if the tigers can catch game

in open plains, he said, " it's pretty good proof they can cope with hunting

more [secretive] prey in thickets or forests " in their mountain habitat.

 

Besides habitat loss, the toughest problem facing the South China tiger is

dwindling genetic diversity. With so few left, inbreeding is common, and zoo

animals, the descendants of just a handful of captive tigers, are often born

with telltale short tails or crooked necks.

 

Other species have gone through similar genetic " bottlenecks " in history and

successfully emerged. Scientists believe all the cheetahs alive today are

the descendants of perhaps six animals that survived such a bottleneck about

10,000 years ago.

 

Whether the South China tiger can do the same remains uncertain. The only

way to find out, they say, is to choose mates as unrelated as possible and

breed as many animals as quickly as possible.

 

" We believe there should be adequate diversity left, " Viljoen said. " I don't

think we've reached a point yet where it's beyond rectifying, but time will

tell. "

 

Getting more cubs also is a challenge. While the Chinese government has

promised the South African project five to 10 cubs by 2007, it has so far

received only four, largely because eight of the 10 cubs born in Chinese

zoos last year died. Tiger conservationists are hoping for healthier Chinese

litters this year, and Quan hopes Tiger Woods and Madonna will begin

breeding next year.

 

The project has drawn criticism from some international big cat experts, who

argue that tigers should be preserved in their natural habitat and that

moving them to South Africa exposes them - and South African cats - to new

disease risks, despite the tigers being quarantined on arrival.

 

Project officials say they agree the work could best be done in China, but

that isn't possible. Two new tiger reserves are in the planning stages. In

the meantime, the program in South Africa is the best option, its backers

say.

 

" You can keep strategizing about how to save them until the day you lose the

last one, " said Ronel Openshaw, a spokeswoman for the foundation. " This is

the last stand. "

 

Laurie Goering writes for the Chicago Tribune.