Largest Manchurian Tiger Center Plans to Import Breeders

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 05, 2001

Largest Manchurian Tiger Center Plans to Import Breeders

Tiger Gives Birth to Cubs at Early Age in Zoo��

China's largest Manchurian Tigerbreeding center in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang plansto import breeder tigers from other parts of China or abroad to improve the genetic quality of the rare species.

The Hengdaohezi Felid Animals Raising and Breeding Center said it is going to take in 20 to 25 breeder tigers annually in the next five years, helping increase its tiger population to 500 by the year 2005, and 1,000 by 2010.

If these goals are met, about 10 percent of the adult tigers atthe center will be returned to the wild field after certain adaptive training, according to Wang Ligang, head of the base.

Genetic defects have been found in recent years among tigers bred at the center which alarmed the specialists there enough to call for breeders to be imported to ensure genetic diversity.

Four tigers imported from Germany have been sent to a Manchurian Tiger park operated by the center.

In the first 11 months of this year, the center successfully bred 60 tigers, indicating it is capable of fulfilling its goal, Wang said.

Backgrounder--The Manchurian Tiger

The Manchurian Tiger, also named Siberian Tiger, or Panthera Tigris Altaica in Latin, is mainly found in northeast China and Russia's Siberia.

It looks slightly different from the other tiger sub-species. It has a coat that lightens during the winter to help blend in with the snow. Its stripes are dark brown instead of black.

The Manchurian Tiger is the largest cat in the world. The biggest one ever recorded was 1,025 pounds, while the average weight for a male is 900 pounds. Male Manchurian Tigers are usually about 3.5 feet tall at the shoulder and about 13 feet long from nose to tail. The tail is usually about 3 feet long.

Its population living in the wild is now only 400 worldwide, with just 13 in China. The number has decreased sharply in the past decades because of man's destruction of the species' natural habitat.

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Wild Manchurian Tigers Increase in Number