Didi Please Don't Leave Me

Photos from left to right:
Didi at Dining table, Didi Presiding Dinner, Didi & his son Darwin
Didi & Son Darwin, Didi Playing Toy mouse, Didi

Didi is not a Peking University Philosophy Cat, but he does belong to a Beida graduate. He is a most lovable, adorable, and sweet natured Black-Smoke Persian Cat.

I came back from the trip to the Americas on Oct 11th and were anxiously told that my cat Didi refused to eat his food. I picked him up and my heart dropped-he seemed to have only bones left.

Didi had gone through quite a lot. Over three years ago, he nearly died. He had two stones removed from his bladder, cysts treated in his right and dead kidney, enlarged left kidney disinfected, as well as an damaged ureter changed, etc. etc. After all these surgery procedures, I was informed by the vet that it was still not certain how long he would live-maybe a few months, or a few years-as kidney failure can not be reversed or treated. Granted, Persian cats, being very inbred like almost all the pedigree cats and dogs, do have this disease more often due to its genetic make-up. My adorable Blue Persian cat Dunrdunr died two years ago in Beijing also from kidney failure.

I am afraid to think that my worst fear may have come and I was still holding out best hope that Didi was simply fed up with his special stone-prevention food he had been feeding on for the past 3.5 years. However his mood is no longer that playful and besides drinking and peeing a lot (all signs of kidney failire) all he wanted to do is lying in bed, preferably with a human around. It was only a few days before Didi was due for his regular check at the Royal College Vet Hospital's Special Reno Clinic, so I resorted to trying to feed him the normal cat food my other cats eat.

It has been six months since Didi's last regular check but things have spiralled down very fast since then. The blood test showed his kidneys are not good and we need to have him X-rayed and Ultra sound scanned to see if he may also have stones. While I anxiously wait for these more tests, I frantically searched for info on his conditions. I read that low protein diet is actually very controversial and does not necessarily stop the deterioration of kidney. Seeing Didi is now even refusing newly changed brand of food of different flavours and format, I decided to buy him fresh raw meat. In natural conditions, cats are carnivores and they should have the system to digest raw meat. Our tigers are in such superb conditions from eating fresh game.

I was delighted to see Didi eat the organic chicken breast with gusto and hope came back to me. However this was not to last longer then two meals. The next morning, I excitedly bought fresh organic baby chicken, patridges, and giblets to provide calcium hoping a change of food again may interest him. I carefully cut up a patridge into pieces and held in front of his nose, he turned his head away. I sliced some pieces off the poulet for him, but he turned his nose up. I gave him some giblets-chicken liver, heart and neck, he just walked away. I was so disheartened that Didi wouldn't have none of them. Afraid he may loose more weight, I resorted to force-feeding him. I let my husband hold him while I pried his mouth open to push food down his mouth. Despite his resistance, I won a few rounds.

However, seeing him walking with difficulty afterwards scared me. Fearful he may have trouble digesting, I massaged his arms, tummy and back. His condition seemed to be loosing fast so I ended up calling the 24 hour emergency service at the Royal Animal Hospital asking for advice at midnight. The next morning I managed to get Didi's appointment changed to two days earlier.

I took Didi to the Animal Hospital for X-ray and ultrasound scans to check for potential causes such as stones, and discussed with the Vet various possibilities of prolonging his life, in the event of kidney failure. To my great disappointment, it seems all the methods such as applying ACE inhibitors, kidney transplant, or artifacial blood cleaning are either not applicable, or not available. I got results from the X-ray and ultrasound just before I headed to the airport and it broke my heart: Didi's only working kidney is enlarged even more and has lost function, and no stone is causing it. This means if there is no other cause for the enlarged kidney, such as tumor, his kidney has failed on its own and will not be able to live any longer.

Is Didi leaving this world, leaving me? I can't contain this thought. I can't bear not having him bringing me aluminium papers balls to throw for him to chase. I can't bear not having him sitting straight up at the the dining table just like a little person and politely raising his little paw asking to share our snacks. I can't bear not having him demanding me to let him inside my bed cover and sleeping next to me with his furry little head rested on my arm...

With such hopelessness, I got on another plane..

Video: Didi and son Darwin

SCT Founders Attended WCN Events

Photos from left to right:
Li & one of her favourite cars the Miata; Pumpkin Harvest 1; Pumpkin Harvest 2; Pumpkin Harvest 3;
Bray and Quan with Dr. Jim Sanderson and Dr. John Hare; Quan & Dr. Douglas Hamilton; Geoffry's Cat on show at Event;
With Dr. John Hare; American Lynx; Quan with Dr. Jane Goodall and Dr. Rodney Jackson;

Oct 2009
Save China's Tigers Founders Li Quan and Stuart Bray attended the annual October fundraising and awareness events of Wildlife Conservation Network in San Francisco at the invitation of its founder Charlie Knowles. During the events, they met with a number of noted conservationists including Dr. Jane Goodall, Dr. Iain Douglas Hamilton of "Save the Elephant", Dr. John Hare of "Saving the Wild Camel", and Dr. Rodney Jackson of "Snow Leopard Conservancy", etc. and discussed future cat conservation projects with Dr. Jim Sanderson of "Small Cats Alliance" and Dr. Laurie Marker of "Cheetah Conservation Funds". Many conservationists applauded Save China's Tigers effort to save the South China Tiger and restore its habitat in China.

Jaguars! And Piranhas For Dinner Finally

Photos from left to right:
Toucan; Cayman 1; Cayman 2; Cayman resting on branch;
Cayman caught fish; Giant Otter Caught fish; Me & Jaguar; Wilson the Beautiful;
Pretty Tame Macaws; Duda & Her sister; Capibara Mum & Baby

I am back in the Pantanal again, this time meeting with Charlie who runs a successful Jaguar Eco-tourist operation and learn from him how he has combined his expertise with eco-tourism to find solutions in sustainable conservation. He is an American PHD in biology who was a senior scientist with WCS before deciding to put academic research into conservation practice by starting his own eco-tourist operation. He has built eighteen eco lodges in different countries in Latin America and the Jaguar Research Center is one of his latest endeavours.

I have heard of him two years ago when I was here. Subsequently, I heard about him again through other friends in South Africa. He has a somewhat controversial reputation, having turned from a scientist into a business man. However, Charlie mentioned that George Schaller, a well-known conservation scientist did encourage Charlie to try unconventional technics to add value to intact nature.

The trip from London this time did not have any hiccups like two years ago: Stuart was not rejected at the border, and we did not arrive in the wrong airport. We were picked up by Charlie at the familiar Cuiaba airport at noon on Sept 26.

Two years ago in August, I spent a fantastic and unique ten days in the Pantanal with Dr. Peter Crawshaw-a jaguar scientist who has worked over 30 years in the field, and saw my first two jaguars two days before I was due to leave (see my blogs from August 2007). This time, having heard about the amazing jaguar sighting record Charlie's operation provides, I was very looking forward to not only finding out how he does it and also seeing the jaguars closer range.

We spent the 4-hour trip from Cuiaba to his lodge discussing and exchanging ideas and information. After breakfast the next morning at 7am, we set off on the river looking for Jaguars while continuing our discussions. Charlie has asked questions about many of the issues in conservation. For example, what is the difference between feeding wild birds from providing salt blocks to antelopes (which is a common practice in wildlife reserves in South Africa), since the former seems to be considered a faux-pas, while the latter is a common practice. Interestingly, we have come to the same conclusions on many issues, though he has approached them from biology perspectives, while I have viewed them with common sense. One of these conclusions is that planet earth has been significantly altered by humans, in fact destroyed, and the destruction is continuing at a faster speed. Many traditional conservation methods have failed. Not only do we need to think outside the box to help the planet, but we also need to ACT.

Our conversation was interrupted by news of a jaguar sighting. We quietly approached the spot and there were two of them about 2 years of age-probably having just left their mother. One of them has been named by the lodge's guests who first sighted her as Duda. They were lying in an opening-"window" of the dense bush and trees, quietly. It was evident these cats were very relaxed with human presence and might be as interested in their human visitors as we were in them, watching us without moving much. Duda is the slightly more active one of the two, moving behind the trees from time to time but not forgetting about showering some affection to her sister from time to time. They were so beautiful! I felt previledged to be so close to them. The sun was shining from the wrong direction so I battled to get a good photo. Still one can still see how dazzlingly beautiful these magnificant cats are from my poorly shot photos.

Charlie, who started coming out to the Pantanal since late 80s had learned
that local fishermen threw their Piranha catch at the jaguars. I wrote in
my blog two years ago that my host threw his piranha catch back into the river since locals find it to have too little meat to bother cooking it. The jaguars gradually learned that these little humans inside their little boats are not any threat to their lives and become quite accustomed to human presence. This is not dissimiliar to some of the leopards in some South African reserves where similar process took place, albert with more human intervention as I was told. The question is, does this practice actually harm them? And is it worthwhile if fund generated from tourists who spend good amount of money seeing the cats in their natural habitat is helping protecting them?

After the lunch break, we set out at 2.30pm for our afternoon ride on the rivers again. Having done these rivers exhaustively two years ago, I could remember the houses I visited and people I met at some of the locations. I was looking forward to seeing more jaguars though I wasn't that greedy to demand another sighting today. But one hour into our trip, we saw another boat quietly parked close to the Corichon Negro (black river), a tributory to the Cuiaba river. We slowed our engine and saw a jaguar under the trees on the river bank. This turned out to be "Wilson", whose reputation I have heard and he is indeed worthy of all the praise heaped on him by his human admirers.

Apparently Wilson was not seen for about a week, prompting speculations about his wherabouts and his fate, before he was seen again yesterday. He must just have gone wondering about looking for a little diversement with girls!

For next two hours, we watched and waited. Wilson's each move excited us with anticipation. But all Wilson did was a slight shift of position, either by moving a couple of meters to the side, or by switching position between his head and tail. He was feeling too comfortable watching all these humans coming and going to leave his vantage point!

Our luck stopped then and there however, as dark clouds moved in on Sept 28. The temperature dropped and as I learned two years ago, jaguars have no more need to come to the riverside to cool themselves down, therefore reducing the chances of humans seeing them by a large margin. For the next two days we scouted the rivers in cold wind, knowing the chance of jaguar sighting was small but still holding a sliver of hope some miracle may happen.

I was however finally able to get Piranha for dinner (see my blog from Aug 2007 on missed Piranha dinner)!

The experience is however not for the faint hearted. The cost is 800 US dollars per person (1600 USD per couple) per night but there is no running water in the tent, no flush toilet, and only about five minutes worth of water for shower coming out of a plastic bottle each night, not mentioning sitting inside a small boat for hours each day scouting the rivers for a potential jaguar sighting that's not guaranteed. Despite what one hears about the high frequency of jaguar sightings in this area, one thing humans can not control is the weather, which influences jaguar sightings greatly. And it will add another 600 to 1000 USD to the bill if you have Charlie as a guide.

The star attraction is Cida the cook, who, God knows how, manages to produce marvelous meals on the houseboat, where we gather for our three meals a day, and where one could also take a long shower in the public bathroom, shared by both guests (including camping guests) and staff alike. When I asked Cida when she sleeps, she just smiled.


Video from left to right:
Jaguar Yawn; Macaws talking to us;
Giant Otter caught a fish

Massive Battles Continued at Tigers Roars

Aug 9, 2009 Witnessing Coco and Brothers Fantastic Hunt

Having made 10 kills in 5 days, we concluded they won't make any kills that easily anymore, as the easy young blesbok seemed to have all been taken out. At 5pm, I and my guests, Dr. Hector Magome (Chief Ecologist of South African Parks) and his son Phil went into Tigers Roars Camp. The tigers were welcoming towards us, making me think this would be another restful day for Hulooo and brothers. At 5.30pm, before we left the camp, I decided to drive around and counted the number of blesbok left, just in case a kill had been made overnight.

Just when we were arguing about the number, Hector saw a tiger running in the far distance in Western part of the camp. It turned out two brothers were trailing a springbok, while Hulooo had come towards us in the East. The springbok eventually out-maneuvered them and joined the group of blesbok who began to follow the leadership of the springbok in a strange move. Apparently the blesbok saw Hulooo and tried to escape.

The three tigers now positioned themselves in different parts of the camp, forming a line, pushing the blesbok into the open grassy area of North East. I was just telling my guests that once the tigers started moving, they will most likely make a successful hunt overnight and Hector remarked that I sounded like a typical game ranger making up a story to make their guests feel good (since seeing a hunt is so difficult that one has to be really lucky). But just then, the blesbok ran South trying to escape. Hulooo made an attack on the blesbok splitting them into two groups, all fleeing for life and we thought they had missed.

But suddenly Hector cried out: "they are making a kill! They are making a kill! Look, look!". In the far distance, we saw Coco and JenB attacking one group of blesbok, scattering them. Then to our complete surprise, both tigers focused on one individual and within a blink of an eye, they brought it down. We could not believe what we saw! And what incredible coordination between the two boys! I quickly drove towards the kill, with Hector blaming me for being too slow. We saw the blesbok got up trying to escape from the tiger's grasp, but was tackled and brought down again. By that time we arrived at the scene about 30 meters away, the blesbok was still alive and fighting for its life. The whole scene unfolded in front of our eyes like a movie.

The blesbok made repeated attempts to escape and the tigers nailed it down each time. The tigers still seemed to be uncertain about what to do, maybe from lack of practice. But after three or four rounds, Coco finally delivered a deadly bite on its neck... neither of us could believe what we just saw as all happened so fast. While I shone my headlights and drove closer to get a better look, Coco kept running away from us draggging the blesbok as if it was just a toy and as if afraid we would take his prized possession away.

We feel incredibly previledged to witness this most fantastic hunt. Hours after the hunt, an excited Hector remarked, "Li, I must thank you. In my whole 25 years as a field ecologist and still now in conservation, I have never seen what I saw today - a hunt from the beginning of the chase to the end of the kill!"

Aug 10, 2009 Breakthrough and More Amazing Hunt!

It appears Hulooo and bros has taken another blesbok overnight!

Conventional wisdom tells us that tiger father can not be put together with his cubs if they have not been together since the cubs were born, for fear that he may kill them. But Nick Marks has also told me that tigers are also good fathers. For one thing, I know that my cat Didi loves his son Darwin and the two of them are inseparable, often sleeping with arms around one another.

It was however a hard decision to put TigerWoods together with Madonna and their cubs. But seeing the warm interests of TW towards his cubs through the fence, I decided to take the risk in a controlled manner. I wanted to do this also because TW seemed to be very lonely on his own, like Cathay watching Madonna and TW after she lost Hope.

The gate opened between Quarantine and Catkins Camp and both TW and Madonna have come to the gate trying to get in to the other's camp. They chuffed at one another lovingly through he narrow gate opening and eventually TW managed to enter into the Quarantine camp where Madonna and her cubs are. Having been away from one another for over a year and a half, the two could not stop showering each other with affection. King Henry could not contain his own excitement and joined the chuffing game and also showed his Dad his little welcome. Princess came close to investigate and there was so much loving chuffing among the four of them.

I am even more convinced that TW knows that these are his cubs as he showed much restraints and patience with King Henry for the next half an hour when KH repeated pawing TW, much like when Hulooo first met Cathay. Madonna left the crowd to allow TW get familiar with the kids. Folk saying goes, "Tiger's butt can't be touched". When KH pawed TW, much to his displeasure, TW uttered a couple of half-hearted threatening roars, and raised his arms in self-defense. Eventually, instead of getting scared by KH, TW started scaring himself (自己吓唬自己），and started making preemptive jumping turns as if being pawed on his butt again by KH.

When Madonna came back to join the gang, TW gave her much loving attention and the two of them went under the pole shelter to shield from the sun. Princess jumped onto the side wall of the pole shelter peeping in on Mom and Dad, and attempted to molest them. When that failed to cause any effects, she went onto the top of the shelter and lowered her head to peep in. After much trying in vain, she gave up and the effort was resumed by KH. Madonna decided to leave the shelter after finally getting fed up by her naughty son's antics.

In the afternoon, I was on my way to visit the tigers again when I ran across Hein, who told me that he saw the tigers hunting again and I'd better hurry. I could not believe that this was happening again. The tigers must have caught a hunting bug and could not get rid of it now!

When I arrived at Tigers Roars, I saw all three brothers in the center of the camp heading with a purpose towards the River area in the West, undisturbed by the sight of my vehicle. I could not see any blesbok in the open area in the eastern part, so quickly drove to the river area. In the distance, we saw a lot of commotion with blesbok running all over the hill left and right, tailed by tigers everywhere. One tiger, which turned out to be JenB, brought down a blesbok who managed to turn over and get up running away again, while JenB's attention was briefly on the other moving blesbok. JenB quickly followed his prey.

While we saw other blesbok being pursued by Coco and Hulooo, we also heard distress moaning coming from the river。 By the time we drove to investigate, we saw JenB had already paralyzed the blesbok, at about the same spot where he made a kill last Thursday (Aug 6) and was trotting away trying to catch more prey. The blesbok was struggling to get up but unable to partly because it was seriously injured and partly because it was slippery. But its struggle caught the attention of JenB again who ran back trying to deliver the final bite. JenB thought he had finished it off after a choking bite and again ran off, but was once more drawn back by the sound made by the struggling blesbok. After a few rounds, he could not resist the sound of commotion coming from the river in the north, where we had heard the sound of a kill as well.

Seeing that JenB would not come back to finish off the kill for the moment, I drove to the other end of the river and through the dense tree branches, we could see Coco tackling another blesbok in the river water which reached to his belly. Hein, who witnessed the hunt, later told me the blesbok had fallen into the river while pursued by Hulooo and Coco. The blesbok was still alive and still struggled to get out of the river and out of the tiger's grasp, but neither seemed to have much leverage. Coco made repeated attempt to deliver the final neck bite but the blesbok always managed to shake him off. JenB, who has arrived on the scene as well, could not seem to help, while Hulooo just laid a couple of meters away letting his brother deal with this thorny issue. After quite some time, we saw Coco cleverly sit on top of the blesbok suffocating it under the water. When it finally stopped struggling, he wrapped his mouth around its neck, holding the bite for quite a few minutes, while his brother JenB attempted to drag the blesbok out of water from its rear end, much to Coco's annoyance. But Coco, being the good hunter he is, refused to let go, until he was certain he had finished his kill off completely, which lasted for nearly 10 minutes.

Witnessing this one was dead, JenB rushed back to his first kill. After a few rounds of uncertain attempt, he finally made up his mind and held his bite around the throat of the blesbok for a long time - probably 6 to 7 minutes, probably getting the tip from his brother. We congratulated him on a job well done.

Now the question is what the tigers do with all these catches. They have made 14 kills in a little over a week and they are certainly not hungry. We decided to steal one or both blesbok to give to the other tigers. It was not an easy task, as the brothers seemed to be suspicious of our intentions and ran over towards us after Vivienne had dragged one out from inside the river. We had to abandon this one.

I drove quickly to the other that JenB had killed and we barely managed to load it onto my truck before the brothers approached us and we hurried away to get out of Tigers Roars before they could catch up with us blesbok thieves.

Aug 14, 2009 Three Brothers Incredible Achievements

The three brothers seemed to know my truck was responsible for the theft of their hard-won blesbok and guarded the entrance to Tigers Roars the entire time we were at the Rewilding Center next afternoon so that we could not drive in. Wherever my truck moved, they would follow closely and uncharacteristically no one gave us any friendly chuff. I feel somewhat guilty for our actions. They made another kill during night, as if to show us that they have a new strategy to counter us "blesbok thieves". For the next couple of days before I left Laohu, they continued with this strategy - kills were made during nights, for fear of us stealing their preys, I guess.

By the time I left Laohu this morning, only 13 blesbok remained. Hulooo and brothers had hunted 17 antelopes in the past 12 days.

They just keep on defying our predictions！

Battle Field at Tigers Roars

Aug 5th. 2009 Hunting Intensified
I feel so privileged to witness what I saw today. Hulooo and brothers were let into Tigers Roars in the evening of Aug 2nd and they made a kill overnight. Last night they took down two more blesbok, reducing their numbers to 26. When I went to see them around 4.30pm today, I was surprised to see one tiger was stalking an antelope in the distance, probably emboldened by their success from last few days. I quickly drove up to the lookout point from where I saw one of the younger brothers on the prowl.
Just when I was wondering if this would be Coco, Hulooo appeared in my binoculars, also with a meaningful walk.

The two brothers kept some distance about twenty meter between them, sniffing all the way, tracking the blesbok, heading South West. In the North-Eastern part of the camp, I saw the big group of blesbok standing, keenly aware of the tigers presence and monitoring their every move.
Hulooo's brother was closer to the antelopes and used the little bushes to hide himself during the approach.

Both tigers got closer and the blesbok lost their nerves and ran off towards the Western part of the camp, tailed by the two tiger brothers. Just when I thought what a pity that the other brother must be feeding on the kills, the third tiger ran out from behind the trees in the Western part towards the Blesbok, who were shocked to see an enemy coming out of nowhere. I had but to admit that that was an incredible cooperation among the brothers!

Way cut off by the third tiger, the blesbok split in different groups, with the third tiger chasing them to the West and the other two following them eastwards. There were a couple of close encounters and my heart was beating fast, anticipating a kill. But to my disappointment, no capture was made.

The brothers regrouped playfully and then split off again with a mission.
They sniffed along the grass pushing towards East again. The full moon was rising in the East, and slowly the sky turned a blue-reddish hue. Hulooo and bros continued their pursuit with such energy and stamina and there was another near encounter soon. For the next half an hour, I could see the blesbok had lost their cool, constantly running back and forth, with the brothers on their sides with seemingly endless energy. The hunt continued as the sun disappeared completely and judging from the constant moving shadows of the blesbok, I can guess the tigers were still hard at work. I bet they would make another kill tonight!

Aug 6, 2009 Battle between JenB Bros and a Blesbok
Having not seen any kills, never mind a dramatic hunt for years since Feb 2006, I was totally taken by surprise today. My friend Nicky F and her family of five came in helicopter today from Johannesburg, bringing my husband Stuart with them.

After a leisurely drive around our reserve and a lamb burger lunch, specialty of Villa TigerLi, my guests wanted to go and see the tigers early so we arrived at the Tiger Rewilding Center around 4pm in two vehicles.
Madonna put in an appearance for a few moments in the Catkins camp before disappearing into the river, tailed by King Henry who kept on playing with her tail.

We went into Tigers Roars Camp and just when I was wondering which direction to go to find Hulooo and brothers, we saw blesbok running wildly in the hilly area in the western section of the camp, and shadows of running tigers from time to time. We quickly drove towards the west, seeing now blesbok scattered all over this part of the camp, running off. We saw two tigers not far ahead going behind the trees. We followed them down the river area and saw in the distance against the sun the silhouette a blesbok and a tiger!

My goodness!!! The blesbok was charging the tiger! My heartbeat raced as I anticipated the third ever fantastic witnessed battle between tiger and blesbok during the history of our rewilding! What followed after was beyond words can describe, as I pulled out my little video camera quickly and recorded the fantastic tackle of the blesbok by JenB. JenB tried, almost half-heartedly, to bite the blesbok by the neck but the blesbok kept avoiding it. However, standing in the pool of water, the blesbok kept slipping giving the tiger advantage to tackle him. After a few rounds, with my females guests wooing and aahing, and me screaming and shrieking, JenB almost confused what to do seeing the slipping blesbok, finally grabbed the blesbok by its neck tentatively, and dragged it behind the tall grass! The moaning of the blesbok died eventually, followed by a few minutes of dead silence.

I could not contain my excitement at having witnessed this most fantastic hunt-only the third one I have ever witnessed during the entire nearly 6 years of rewilding. I am so proud of JenB, whom we thought had been the lame duck.

Another surprise laid in store, as we discovered another kill lying on the hilly rocks of the river bank a bit later, as Coco and JenB tried in turn to drag it down to a more accommodating area. Only after much effort, Coco managed, in a clever move, to dislodge the blesbok whose legs were caught in the rocks. Afterwards, all three young tigers came to where our vehicles were and lied down watching us as if seeking praise and approval. I was impressed that Hulooo did not come and jump on our vehicles as if having erased past memories from his childhood. Or maybe he is just getting less attached to humans as the wild side took over.
After much compliment and encouragement we showered on them, we left them before it turned completely dark. We got out of Tigers Roars just before they arrived at the gate, as if not wanting us to leave.

I must say the progress of these young tigers were remarkable. I counted 24 blesbok left this morning, so two kills were made overnight, and now we counted 21 blesbok remaining which means they made three kills during today, bring the total number of kills to 8 in the last 4 days since Sunday.

Aug 8, 2009
Heaven forbids! Hulooo brothers took another blesbok overnight, AND a springbok!! Springbok are famously fast runners and can spring 7 to 8 meters in one jump. They can also run through the fence when faced with danger. Two Springbok came into Tigers Roars a few months ago and have managed to survive through the onslaught for a few months. But clearly, one has now lost its life last night. This brings a total number of hunts to 10 kills in past five days. I can't but congratulate the brothers for their achievement.

Save China's Tigers to Fund Wild Cat Conservation Worldwide

Save China's Tigers, a charitable foundation funding pioneering work with the South China Tiger, has broadened its scope of conservation goals from tigers to include all wild cats around the world. Today it launched the "Wildcat Fund” to encourage and support wild cat research, conservation, as well as reintroduction efforts for highly endangered and vulnerable wild cats.

There are currently thirty-seven species of wild cats, with many facing uncertain futures. The best known are the big cats including tigers, lions, and jaguars. Of these, the South China Tiger is the most endangered and is on the verge of extinction. However, three-quarters of the world's wild cats are smaller species and many of these are also highly endangered such as the Iriomote Cat, the Andean Mountain cat, Borneo Bay cat, and the Flat-headed cat.

Historically, funding in wild cat conservation has favoured the large, charismatic species such as lions, cheetahs and tigers. While giving priorities to cat species having the IUCN “Endangered” status or above, Save China’s Tigers’ “Wildcat Fund” also encourages projects conducting pioneering biological and ecological research of little known cat species in an effort to increase understanding of these species and help design improved conservation actions.

Ms. Li Quan, Founding Director of Save China's Tigers said: "My passion has always been for all cats of the world. I am very pleased to be able to contribute to the conservation of all of them through Save China's Tigers’ Wildcat Fund. Over the years, we have realized that for some endangered species to survive in the wild, a multi-disciplinary approach combining captive breeding, rewilding, habitat protection and restoration, and re-introduction can make a valuable contribution to wildlife conservation and the environment. Save China’s Tigers was the first to experiment with this alternative in big cat conservation and we have made a number of significant breakthroughs in tiger conservation. We would like to apply our expertise and share our experience to help save other endangered cats of the world", says Quan.

Projects applying for funding must be proactive conservation projects led by wild cat biologists and ecologists with proven academic record, but more importantly over eight years of field experience. Proposals should not include office and administrative expenditures. "We would like to focus on field activities to counter the trend in conservation where valuable donor funding pays for office infrastructure and expensive conferences. And, we would like to make the projects we fund accountable for our benefactors", Quan added.

One of the first projects that Save China's Tigers will be funding is Brazilian Jaguar expert Dr. Peter Crawshaw's research vehicle to support his various wild cat conservation projects including jaguars, cougars etc. Another is the rewilding and reintroduction of a female Oncilla (aka "Tiger Cat" and "Leopardus tigrinus") in Brazil to learn if it is feasible to think of reintroducing individuals into the wild from captive conditions, as well as to study the behaviour of wild individuals of this little known cat.

Funding applications can be made at any time by completing an application form which can be downloaded from our website. The grant committee will be chaired by Save China's Tigers founder Li Quan with a panel of experienced cat scientists. Any inquiries must be sent to: info@savechinastigers.org

Save China's Tigers would like to use this opportunity to thank all its supporters for their tremendous contribution to our historic Chinese Tiger conservation effort.

WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF:
Conservation Finance International
FOR MAKING THIS NEW INITIATIVE POSSIBLE
Photo by: Yuan Ye

The Microchipping Drama -Never Underestimate the Power of an Angry Tiger

Amid much progress and excitement with our new initiatives, I arrived back at Laohu Valley last night. Hulooo and brothers greeted me in Tiger's Roar Camp. Hulooo, though still welcoming, seemed not as attached to humans as before, which is a good sign. He is either reaching adolescent rebellious age, just like a human teen, or life in the wild is finally turning him into a real tiger.

They were put into Tigers Roars only last night, so I was surprised to see all three of them with faint blood stains on their ruff, and a bit on their legs. They were still licking them off. A kill or two must have been made overnight! We were able to find out later they made one kill, since 28 blesbok remained out of the 29 we had yesterday , but we will not know who was the hero of the pack although we all speculated that Coco would be the one. Never underestimate the others, I said to myself, as Madonna turned out to be hunting "secretly" while we all marvelled at TigerWoods' remarkable abilities when they were young!

King Henry and Princess were separated from mom this morning and were kept in Riverine Camp, in anticipation of their microchipping this afternoon by the Vet Dr. Joseph Van Heerden. This would be a second attempt as the first attempt to microchip them failed when they were two months old. Madonna and cubs had done remarkly well in the past month and made 10 kills in one month while in Tigers Roars and supported themselves completely on their own. We had to buy new game to replensh the stock last week. At this rate, the young tigers will all become proficient hunters in no time!

Joseph arrived before 2pm and checked on King Henry and Princess to estimate their weight. It is important to have as accurate an estimate as possible to apply the right amount of medicine. Joseph is a very cautious vet, and I wrote before how impressed I was with him as he was very cautious in terms of drugs and dosage. The first one to get the dart was King Henry. He dropped down after 10 minutes but as soon as the Vet poked him with a stick to see if he had fallen asleep, he jumped up and ran off. He struggled to stay up walking away but sleep overcame him again. The Vet decided to give him another dose of sedatives. This time he fell asleep just enough for the vet to microchip him but did not give us enough time to apply antidote before he suddenly woke up and stumbled off again. Joseph eventually managed to catch up with him and apply half a dose of antidote to KH but gave up after a bit of chase and decided to let him wake up on his own, which could take quite a while. Fortunately, KH fell into slumber again later and gave the vet opportunty to apply the leftover antidote.

The Vet then prepared sedatives for Princess who, having seen her brother fall, became totally wild. She ran around the fenceline while the vet was about to shoot the dart. But her next move was beyond anyone's imagination! Just when we were turning the vehicle around, we suddenly saw this flash of orange fur flying through the gate separating Catkins Camp and Princes ran off into the trees on the other side of the fence!! How on earth she did that we did not know. We drove to the gate and saw the wires of the gate were split wide open. Microchipping seemed to be always full of drama. We had JenB climbing up the electric fence during their microchipping last year; not mentioning King Henry and Princess couldn't be caught the first time when we tried microchipping; and now we have Princess going through fence! One can never overestimate the difficulties enough in these kinds of vetinary undertakings!

Having now given up the microchipping of Princess, we moved to Cathay, planning to take up the long-dead radio-collar off her. After all that difficulties with the young cubs, we were very anxiuous. However, Cathay was indeed a worldly tiger, and came to the fence to greet us. The whole darting, de-collaring and antidote applying process went smoothly, much to our relief, to compensate for the troubles we had with King Henry and Princess.

We did not complete our tasks fully today, but we learned a big lesson, that no fence is a guarantee of protection when faced with an angry tiger! We now have to leave Princess's microchipping for some time in the future, once more!