A male tiger was being airlifted from China to South Africa on Tuesday in an effort to save the world’s rarest tiger breed from extinction.
The four-and-a-half-year-old from Suzhou Zoo in far-eastern China is one of fewer than 100 remaining South China tigers and is to join a breeding programme in South Africa aimed at saving the subspecies from extinction.
Four tigers already flown to South Africa have been put through a ”rewilding” process so that any cubs born might one day be ready to be released back into the wilds in China, where hardly any tigers remain.
Four South China tigers named Hope, Cathay, Tiger Woods and Madonna were sent to South Africa in 2003, but the oldest male, Hope, has died, leaving his partner, Cathay, without a mate.
”Losing our male tiger delayed our breeding programme, but we are back on track with the arrival of this new stud male,” said Li Quan, founder of the charity behind the project, Save China’s Tigers.
”We also expect that Tiger Woods and Madonna will mature soon and start mating,” she added.
The programme aims to produce its first cubs in 2008, but the people behind the project warned that if they fail to breed, South China tigers could be extinct within a few years.
There are about 60 South China tigers in captivity and an estimated 10 to 30 living in the wild in south-western China, although none has been sighted for decades.
The project has been criticised by some wildlife experts who say there are too few South China tigers left to save the subspecies and nowhere for them to be safely released back into the wild in the world’s fastest-growing major economy. — Sapa-dpa