JOHANNESBURG: A male South China tiger cub was born at the Laohu Valley Reserve, about 600 km south of Johannesburg, on Friday at about 11:30 pm local time, the Save China's Tigers Foundation said on Sunday.
Li Quan, founder of the foundation, told Xinhua via telephone that it is a truly historic event because it is the first time a South China tiger, which has been described as "functionally extinct", had been born outside China.
She said the cub is healthy and strong, weighing 1.2 kg at birth (larger than normal), and although his eyes have not yet opened, he is quite vocal, especially at feeding time.
Li Quan, founder of the Save China's Tigers Foundation, holds the male South China tiger cub that was born on Friday at the Laohu Valley Reserve in South Africa. Xinhua
He is the first cub born to female Cathay and male TigerWoods, who are both undergoing training at the South African reserve to prepare them for life in the wild. The pair mated during the five days from August 7 to 11, Li said.
After the birth, which took 12 hours, four-and-a-half-year- old Cathay displayed her maternal instincts by cleaning and licking her cub, but unseasonably cold weather necessitated the cub being removed to prevent it dying from exposure.
Father TigerWoods, who is three-and-a-half years old and weighs 140 kg, has yet to see his cub.
Staff at Laohu Valley monitored Cathay for 24 hours after the birth, before releasing her back into the larger tiger enclosures. She showed no adverse signs of having her cub taken away from her, Li said.
The cub is being hand reared with the assistance of an expert from another wildlife sanctuary.
Plans have been made to reintroduce the cub back to his mother at a suitable time. Afterwards it will undergo the same training as the older tigers to prepare it for life in the wild, Li said.
"The training program has taken a major step forward with the birth of this cub," she said.
"The tigers brought to South Africa from China have now not only proven they can hunt and fend for themselves, they have also shown cubs can be bred in a natural environment," she said.
Some conservation groups have written off the Chinese tiger as "functionally extinct".
However, Save China's Tigers, the charity which initiated and manages the retraining project, aims to take zoo born tigers from China, train them to survive and breed in the wild and then return their offspring to China.
Since 2003, four tigers have taken part in the training program at the Laohu Valley Reserve.
Source: China Daily/Xinhua
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