Rare South China tiger cub born at Laohu Valley
Ms Li Quan, founder of Save China’s Tigers today announced that a male South China tiger cub (Chinese:華南虎, Panthera tigris amoyensis) was born at Laohu Valley Reserve, Free State, South Africa at 23:30, November 23rd 2007.
It is truly a historic event, because it is the first time that a South China Tiger has been born outside of China. Only around 60 South China Tigers exist in captivity and less than 30 survive in the wild.
The male South China Tiger cub, is at this stage healthy and strong. He weighed 1.2 kg at birth (larger than normal), he is already quite vocal, especially at feeding time. He is the first cub born to the female tiger, Cathay and the male tiger, TigerWoods who are both undergoing rewilding training at the Laohu Valley Reserve in South Africa. He will undergo the same rewilding training.
Since 2003, 4 tigers have undergone rewilding training at Laohu Valley Reserve, 600 km from Johannesburg, the biggest city in South Africa. They have learnt to cope with the elements and to catch a variety of prey from wild guinea fowl and hares to blesbok. They have learnt the necessary hunting skills using stalking and camouflage techniques. To date they have successfully hunted more than 60 blesbok, proving that their natural instinct to hunt has been awakened.
Laohu Valley Reserve covers 330 square kilometers of land in both the Free State and Northern Cape Provinces. There are more than 10 species of endemic game on the reserve including blesbok, eland, springbok, black wildebeest, zebra, ostrich, gemsbok, as well as some small predators such as jackal, caracal and African wild cat.
China is also doing preparation work to establish a Pilot reserve for the eventual return of these rewilded tigers.
