Sunday 14 February 2010

Dear Friends of Save China's Tigers

Twelve years ago, it was predicted by some organizations that the South China Tigers will go extinct by the next Chinese Year of the Tiger (2010).Coincidently that was about when we decided to take on the challenging task of rescuing the South China Tigers from this dire consequence. With the Chinese Tiger Year arriving, this time starting on Valentine's Day of Feb 14th (what a nice coincidence!), there is much reason for celebration as the South China Tiger is still alive and kicking, despite the declaration of its extinction by some organizations recently. And there is hope for its return as King of Beasts back to China's Wild.

It has been a very challenging ten years for Save China's Tigers, and the most difficult obstacles have not been the unprecedented rewilding of the South China Tigers themselves. Despite all the roadblocks, out of the original five tigers we brought from China to South Africa, we now have five second-generation tigers capable of fending for themselves and the number is still growing. To celebrate the tenth year anniversary of Save China's Tigers, the 2010 Chinese Year of the Tiger as well as the possible restoration of the South China Tigers as Kings of Mountains in China, we have undertaken a number of activities as below:
1. We launched an awareness campaign titled "the Last South China Tiger", created by New Orleans body painting artist Craig Tracy who kindly donated his work to Save China's Tigers. These stunning images and video are spreading around the net and you can see on our websites both the still images and the video.
A short version of the video can also be downloaded from here on our website and sent to your friends by email or mobile phone.
Glycee painting of "the Last South China Tiger" is also on sale in our E-shop.
2. We created a Tiger Tram campaign in HK. Please see press release and the cool images of the prowling Tiger Tram.
3. Our book "South China Tiger Diaries" was published by the People's Literature Press, in the Chinese Language. This beautifully designed book chronicled the lives of 5 South China Tigers and their cubs learning to hunt and fend for themselves at Laohu Valley Reserve in South Africa. It described the challenges and setbacks they faced, their love and romance, births of their cubs and their survival training in fun and humorous language. The book is on sale in major bookstores around China.
More exciting projects are on the way. For example, we are working on a coffee table book which tells the stories of our tigers under rewilding training through memorable photos collected during past seven years of their life in a wild place. So watch this space!

Finally, I would like to use this opportunity to thank all of you for providing support for Save China's Tigers over the past ten years. It's a remarkable feat that a small organization like ours is not only still thriving after all this time and all the difficult challenges, it is also going from strength to strength- having set up our Wildcat Fund and started supporting other wild cat conservation projects internationally. Thanks to all of you!

I wish you all a very good Year of the Tiger and make the best of it, as it wont come for another 12 years after this.

Li Quan

1 comment:

Alice Liddell Blog said...

I saw your interview on the 7:30 report and found it very inspiring - congratulations on achieving so much over the last 12 years to help such a beautiful animal. I hope the coffee table book will be printed in English!