China Tiger Revival (Dire, Desperate, Harrowing...)

Dire, Desperate, Harrowing, Heart-Breaking...

 But Perhaps Not Inevitable. 

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South China Tiger Rewilding Guidelines - First Step to the Reintroduction of Captive Bred Tigers to the Wild

-Authored by Li Quan

I would like to thank the many scientists who gave me input in drafting this document, which is an accumulation of my 13 years of tiger conservation work, which started in 1999.

At the International Wildlife Management Congress (IWMC 2012), the South China Tiger Rewilding Guidelines was officially released. Since 2003, I have undertaken an unprecedented project to rewild zoo-born South China Tigers in South Africa to prepare them for their eventual return to their natural habitat in China in conjunction with China's Wildlife R&D Centre of the Forestry Academy. This pioneering project was ground-breaking in many areas: applying an unconventional approach and utilizing the expertise of a different country in a foreign location to fast-track the recovery of the most ancient, yet most endangered tiger in the world.

Below is an abstract of the Tiger Rewilding Guidelines that I have applied and a full version in both English and Chinese can be obtained here: http://www.savechinastigers.cn/file/2013/RewildingGuidelines.pdf 

Abstract*

Many wildlife management projects have been conducted throughout the world that may involve: rehabilitation, re-introduction or translocation. Few of these activities have successfully been conducted using captive bred predators. Rewilding describes the processes in which carnivores that have been in zoo conditions for generations and have no survival skills for the wild, re-learn the hunting and skills in a natural environment to prepare them to be reintroduced to the wild.

The South China Tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) is recognised by the IUCN as the most endangered of the remaining six extant subspecies of tigers. There are believed to be fewer than 30, if any at all, left in the wild. The only option to revive this tiger in the wild is through reintroduction of captive-bred individuals. OUr project aims to utilise rewilded captive bred tigers and their offspring as catalysts to restore and secure habitat for their release in China.  In the wild, offspring of tigers are known to spend up to 28 months with their mothers when they acquire and develop hunting and survival skills. Captive-bred tigers lack these essential hunting skills and need to be rewilded before they can be reintroduced.

Tiger rewilding initially started in China in the 1990’s. South Africa was used to fast track the rewilding project. Five tigers were transferred from zoos in China to South Africa since 2003.

The tigers have been confined to one area of the reserve, subdivided into different-sized camps (0.5 to 100ha), depending on objectives for individual tigers. The number of camps increased over the years as the number of tigers increased, and the sizes of the hunting camps were modified as tigers became more experienced and skilled, and to accommodate the tigers’ development and mimic their movement according to their age. The tiger camps are secured with electrified fences.

There are three categories of camp sizes, according to the age of the tigers and their ability to hunt: quarantine/smaller camps, intermediate camps, advanced rewilding camps. All camps are equipped with natural or supplemental water supplies.

The Rewilding methodology was initially developed for us by Gus Van Dyk, former Carnivore Manager at Pilanesberg National Park of South Africa, and been fine-tuned throughout our rewilding programme, which has followed “Adaptive Management” procedures. The methods have evolved as the project progresses, to suit the changing needs and situations.

Zoo-born tigers that originated from China, were introduced to ungulate prey where rewilding involved “self-taught” or "trial and error" learning. Second generation tigers born in South Africa, were rewilded by: 1) learning survival skills from their mothers-“Natural Learning (NL)”, and 2) a combination of mother-teaching and NL without their mother’s accompaniment.

Components such as “Pavlov” training, prey species and their sizes, animal and human safety procedures, human habituation, veterinarian provisions, data collection/monitoring, treatment, and ethics are discussed in the rewilding guidelines.

Details of fencing structure, camps characteristics, prey species for hunting training and feeding, as well as monitoring sheets are also included in the rewilding guidelines.

Summary of US Congressional Briefing on June 22nd 2012 by Smithsonian Zoo and Save China's Tigers

The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Director Dr. Steve Montfort, and Save China's Tigers' Founding Director Ms. Li Quan, co-presented at the ICCF congressional briefing on June 22nd in Capitol Hill.

Below is a summary of the briefing:

The Role of Reintroduction: Ensuring the Continued Existence of Species in the Wild

The drivers of human-wildlife conflict often place enormous pressures on entire populations of flagship species. These threats can be so severe that, once dangers have been addressed, existing populations need to be supplemented with animals raised in captivity.

Both the Smithsonian National Zoo and Save China’s Tigers are pursuing innovative means of species preservation through reintroduction.

Dr. Monfort of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute outlined the ways in which zoos can leverage their resources to reintroduce species on the brink of extinction into the wild.

The Smithsonian believes this method of species conservation will be increasingly important for the future, as the number of endangered species has increased steadily over the past ten years.

Save China's Tigers is leading one of the most famous current "rewilding" programs - first introducing South China tigers in South Africa, which offers ideal conditions for the tigers to relearn to hunt, and eventually releasing them back into South China.

In 2008, the organization had observed their greatest milestone in a pair of tiger cubs born in South Africa in the wild, after four years of training the tigers' parents to adapt to the environment. 14 tigers are now under Save China's Tiger, 11 of them born in South Africa.

Mr. And Mrs. Tompkins: From Patagonia to Patagonia

Cat in Buenos Aires Street


Where working girl used to live in Colonia


Fishi driving in Colonia, Uruguay


Cat in our restaurant in Colonia, Uruguay


Tigerli & Evangelical Church in Uruguay


Evangelical Church in Colonia del Sacramento of Uruguay


Nice horse


Viscachio


Ant house's ventilation


Abundant Bird life


with team of Conservation Land Trust


Latin Ostrich


March deer at Ibera


with Kris& Doug Tompkins


Anteater to be reintroduced at Ibera


Dog Walking Buenos Aires


Buenos Aires Garbage


"Not many foreign tourists go to Mercedes", said the receptionist at my hotel in Buenos Aires. Indeed, its a long bus ride of about 10 hours away from BA, and this was not even the end of my journey- two more hours of car ride was needed to my final destination - Esteros del Iberá.

Why were we making such an effort to reach this remote area of Argentina? We were not only visiting this great freshwater wetland of Argentina, which generates a huge diversity of landscapes through its presence or absence, but also meet Kris and Douglas Tompkins, who were responsible for creating Estancia Rincón de Socorro- a private reserve measuring 130000 Ha, which eventually led to the government declaring a total of 1.3 million hectares
of natural habitat as protected areas surrounding this ranch. We ourselves
have been doing something similar in South Africa, albeit much later and on a smaller scale.

Ibera joins up very diverse environments, offering habitats to more than 4000 species of terrestrial and aquatic biota, among which at least eight are endemic species, found only in this corner of the globe. Iberá is one of the warm-climate wetlands with more species diversity in the world.

Rain and cold also followed me to this remote corner of Argentina (not far from Brazil), just like many other trips I have had in the last year. After the night bus, we were met by a biologist from Conservation Land Trust, Yamil, who drove us on a mostly muddy road to Rincón de Socorro. Rincón means "Corner", and what a beautiful corner it is (!) - full of capibarras, caimens and etc, including recent reintroduced ant-eaters.

We spent the day with Kris and Douglas, who are well known in nature conservation. Doug was co-founder of the fashion brand Esprit and North Face and Kris is former CEO of Patagonia. They have already helped create two National Parks in Chile and Argentina by buying up large chunks of land and donating to these countries, and are now onto their third one-creating a NP in the very place from where the clothing label Patagonia took its name.

It was enlightening to meet this famed couple and further, comforting to discover that we share similar views on many issues facing the planet, for example, overpopulation coupled with consumerism is depleting biodiversity by driving many species to extinction in unprecedented speed. Further, we share the same appreciation in beauty and therefore the appreciation of the wild and nature. I wonder if this has something to do with both of us working in the fashion business in the past, or rather it is this sensitivity that led both of us into the same industry initially, and now similar efforts to preserve nature's wonders. We also exchanged our respective funny stories. Like some of the bizaar attacks we have faced (eg, I was accused of selling the tiger Hope to my enemies- the Varty brothers who stole money from us), the Tompkins were accused of stealing water from the marsh and selling it to China on the internet! What a fanciful world some people live in their crazy brains indeed.

The next morning, we went on a boat trip to the mash, which is not unlike the Pantanal in terms of scenery and animal life. We had the pleasure of seeing the unique Marsh Deer though. At one point, we saw a screamer (a big bird)spread its wings and just when I thought it was drying its wings in the sun after two rainy days, the Screamer suddenly flapped its left wing and gave the nearby caiman a big slap on its head, frightening the caiman into fleeing into the safety of the lagoon water.

The weather cleared up only a brief moment before cloud took over again, making it hard for our afternoon flight over the reserve to have a bird's view of this vast place. We eventually did take off and despite the overcast, the beauty of this wetland area is evident to all. We managed to also see a few Marsh deer grazing underneath. On the drive back to the hotel at dusk, we saw dozens of Viscachos (a chinchila-like creature), and a fox to add to my repertoire of wildlife sightings.

Further discussions with the managers/scientists of CLT Sophia, Ignacio and Yamil on our respective anteater and tiger reintroduction projects further revealed similar experiences and challenges, which are likely scenarios in any new and ground-breaking initiatives - we will just have to take this as a given and put them behind us.

We also share similar organisational structures-very flat and very little overhead. We focus on actions, not just promises of actions. I understand this is not possible with the big NGOs which have huge admin structures and expensive staff members to support. Nevertheless, I wonder if any of the Heads of these big NGOs would ever take a overnight bus of 10 hours between their reserve and Buenos Aires like the Tomkpins. Stories abound in conservation world on how huge amount of donor funding is spent on stylish travels by these big NGOs.

We left Ibera even more impressed and also encouraged by the Tompkins and their effort with the Conservation Land Trust. If more people and organisations just get on doing something similar, the speed of biodiversity loss may be slowed down, and the health of the planet may one day be on the rebound?

Postscript: May 22nd is a World Biodiversity Day. Suddenly, the UN is acknowledging that biodiversity loss is a bigger issue than climate change and world governments have failed to deliver their on their promises that 190 countries committed in 2002 to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. The goal of restoring the South China Tiger to its natural habitat is actually to restore such biodiversity. For years we have been striving for this goal and its comforting to know that UN is finally recognizing that biodiversity loss is by far the most urgent issue concerning health of the planet.

-Li Quan, Buenos Aires

Erasing the Tiger, Losing the Habitat

Below is my posted comments to the World Bankblog titled "Hot passion, tigers --and shoe shops" by Tony Whitten, about its new Tiger Initiative which reports the South China Tiger “extinct in the 1990’s”.
Please visit the blog to see other comments:
http://eapblog.worldbank.org/content/hot-passion-tigers-and-shoe-shops

Erasing the Tiger, Losing the Habitat
Submitted by Li Quan (not verified) on Mon, 07/14/2008 - 06:12

As founder of Save China’s Tigers I welcomed the World Bank’s decision to support conservation of the world’s endangered tigers. It was with profound shock and regret that I saw South China tiger listed as ‘extinct’ in your report.

It has become apparent in this blog that certain participants well-known to this organization have influenced the bank to disregard the opinions of organizations such as IUCN and other respected conservationists on the status of the South China Tiger. It is also apparent that undue importance has been attributed to a single study by Ron Tilson et al. in which Tilson concluded the tiger was ‘functionally extinct’ in the wild.

We selected Ron Tilson, invited him to China and co-funded his survey in spite of advice of many individuals from large conservation organizations who told me that Tilson was not suited to do the survey job. However, I choose Tilson because he wrote a paper in 1998 "The Impending extinction of the South China Tigers in the wild", and concluded that he had some interests in helping China resurrecting the South China Tiger.

After completion of the study he promptly declared the South China Tigers extinct in the wild in the Vancouver Sun paper, prior to the release of the Oryx report. This conclusion was disputed by the Chinese conservationist who conducted the field study and issued their own report. I have not understood Tilson’s motivations for his unsupported conclusions and rejection of anecdotal evidence. However, his motivations become obvious with his planned "South China Tiger/Indochinese Tiger Reintroduction Project". If, may we ask, he declared the South China Tigers extinct, where would he get the tigers to be introduced to Hupingshan? According to IUCN guidelines, one cannot introduce a species or subspecies unless the local population is considered extinct. Coincidence?

I’d like to reprise Tilson’s conclusion from his 1998 article: “The captive population, for better or for worse, may be all that is left against total extinction of this subspecies. To paraphrase the words of a noted environmental philosopher (Leopold, 1953), the first rule of intelligent tinkering is not to throw away any of the pieces.” A premature declaration of extinction for the South China tiger is unconscionable and I strongly urge the World Bank to reassess this unfortunate declaration.