Tigers Study abroad

COuLD yOu bRIEFLy INTRODuCE ThE ChINa TIgER REvIvaL aND ThE LaOhu vaLLEy RESERvE （LvR） IN SOuTh aFRICa？ whaT waS yOuR INSPIRaTION？

In October 2000， I launched China Tiger Revival （formerly Save China’s Tigers） in the Chinese embassy in London in the UK. The ambitious project aims to reverse the fate of the Chinese tigers by breeding them， helping them regain their natural hunting abilities and reintroducing them back into China’s wild. Laohu Valley Reserve is located near the small town of Philippolis， Free State in South Africa， with an area of 33，000 hectares. It stretches right over Orange River with 1/3 of the area in Northern Cape and the other 2/3 in Free State. The unique reserve is made up of 17 chunks of defunct sheep farms. I was born in the Year of Tiger and have always loved cats， especially the tiger. I’ve thought that conservation is the coolest thing ever since I visited the South Luwanga National Park in Zambia. I was deeply touched by the beautiful animals living freely.

whEN yOu wERE INTERvIEwED by ThE XINhua NEwS agENCy， ThEy mENTIONED ThaT， IN ThE bEgINNINg， ThE FIRST TwO TIgERS—CaThay aND hOPE—wERE aFRaID OF LIvE ChICKENS bEFORE ThEy wERE REhabILITaTED. ON JuLy 25， 2004， ThEy CaughT ThEIR FIRST EvER buShbuCK aND aTE IT. aRE ThERE aNy OThER INTERESTINg SuCCESS STORIES？

Well， I would like to share the story of Tiger Woods and Madonna. At the beginning of November 2004， Tiger Woods and Madonna arrived aged eight and seven months respectively. These cubs flew directly from Beijing via Hong Kong to Johannesburg and were again flown to Laohu Valley by the Bateleurs. The cubs were housed in a 0.2 hectare quarantine camp for the first month of their stay at LVR. During this time， they were fed meat from the butchery， but within the first week of their arrival they were given hare carcasses. Both cubs devoured the hares completely， including the skin and bones. By the end of the quarantine period， they also got their first large carcass—a springbok. In contrast to Hope and Cathay， Tiger Woods immediately knew that this was food， and he wrestled it out of the hands of the staff at LVR. It still took him and Madonna quite some time to learn how to efficiently open a carcass， but by the third carcass， they were doing it like pros. At the end of January 2005， Tiger Woods and Madonna moved from their small enclosure into a 4 hectare camp. Here， for the first time， they encountered live prey in the form of guinea fowl. At first， both cubs were rather clumsy in hunting the birds， but—after the third encounter—they were proficient in hunting and eating prey. In April 2005， Madonna and Tiger Woods were again “upgraded” to a larger enclosure， this time to a 9 hectare camp. This enclosure also has a river running through it， and the cubs could be seen playing in the running water. At the same time， blesbucks （a type of antelope） were also introduced into this camp. For the first two weeks， both cubs simply chased the blesbucks around， thinking it was some kind of game. And then it happened； they managed to kill one of the blesbucks and the penny dropped！ This was food！ What made this a remarkable achievement was that these two tigers succeeded in hunting for themselves a full year earlier than Cathay and Hope. In 2006， they were released into the 40-hectare camp. What was very interesting to observe was that Tiger Woods would be the one stalking and chasing the blesbucks while Madonna lay in wait. As he chased the blesbucks past Madonna， she would leap up and attempt to catch them—but with little success. When Tiger Woods did bring down a blesbuck， it was often Madonna who gave the final bite to the neck while Tiger Woods held it in place.

OThER ThaN ThE TIgERS， DOES ChINa TIgER REvIvaL havE aNy OThER CONSERvaTION PROJECTS IN ChINa？