Madonna Dates Hulooo & Brothers

Hulooo's dad TigerWoods mated for the first time when he was 3 years and 5 months of age. Hulooo has been showing signs of sexual maturity for about a year, spraying bushes and trees, even riding his younger brothers much to their annoyance. Now Hulooo is also approaching 3 years and 5 months of age so I decided to let him and Madonna meet and develop their relationship with a view of getting some love fruit from them.

After a thunderstorm and light rain overnight, the air was fresh and cool in the morning of March 11, 2011. Hulooo brothers congregated next to the gates. We separated Hulooo and let him into the passage leading to the tree camp and opened the gates between him and Madonna. Hulooo took a step into the Tree Camp where Madonna had been guarding her gate and was met by a half hearted roar, after which Hulooo went to quench his thirst as if hiding his embarrassment. Then they behaved as if nothing unusual had happened.

After a bit of milling around, Hulooo went to the big tree after which this camp is named and started sniffing all that interesting scents the tree has collected from Madonna. He hugged it and rubbed his face against it with such indulgence and dedication, following up by an abundant spray at it. After he left the tree Madonna soon followed and hugged it and rubbed her face against the tree with even more enthusiasm, before spraying it with equal care. Things are looking good between the two of them, sexually!

Initially Madonna was charming, stretching herself out belly-up in a seductive manner. Hulooo wandered around absent-minded. But just when I thought he was less interested in Madonna, thundering roars interrupted the morning tranquility when Madonna and Hulooo engaged in a show of force, standing up. But both suddenly flopped to the ground, growling. The cause of this? Apparently while no one was paying attention, Hulooo went up to Madonna and bit her butt! What an impolite act! So in his superficial absent-mindedness, Hulooo had been scheming.

Hulooo decided to keep a safe distance from Madonna while she continued grumbling for the next 15 minutes. After a while Hulooo approached her but was quickly deterred by her continued display of unhappiness and he went about sniffing the ground.

For next few days, Hulooo was let out in the evening and let in with Madonna again in the morning. Madonna, as if not forgetting Hulooo's nip on her butt, continued to growl at Hulooo, blocking his entry either into her camp or access to the water tank. However, while growling, she also displayed inviting and submissive behaviour to Hulooo, such as lying on the ground. At no time did she display aggressive fighting posture such as crouching on all fours. And after couple of days, when Madonna had seen that Hulooo was due to be let out of the Tree Camp in the evening, she decided to block his way out by stretching out before the gate as well. It became a struggle for Hulooo to get around her and get out.

By the fourth morning, Madonna decided to go a step further by entering into the passage way and guarding from outside her gate, making it even harder for an Eager Hulooo to get into her camp and checking out her scents.

Hulooo was however terrified of Madonna's grumbles and occasional roars, avoiding at all costs, crossing her path. Madonna would not leave him alone, following him wherever he went. It looked as if on the one hand she is snubbing him but on the other she was interested in him. Sound like a cat?

Both were treading on thin ice though, and all grass turned into enemies. Each of them had on occasion scared themselves with their own shadows.

By fifth day there was less tension. Madonna left enough space for Hulooo to come into her camp. The scent must have now become familiar so Hulooo also spent less time sniffing and hugging that big tree. The two spent time apart during day with just a couple of close encounters. But before the sun set, Madonna promptly stationed herself next to the gate again to block Hulooo's exit!

Throughout all this testing time for Hulooo, Madonna has been showering friendly chuffs towards Hulooo's younger brother Coco through the fence. I decided to put Coco in with Madonna to see the difference of her reactions. Indeed, Coco was met with friendly chuffs when he was let in Madonna's camp in the morning of March 16, but he headed straight to the leftover bones. Afterwards he jumped on top of the shelter and started tearing at the log, managing to get a piece of the leftover PVC cover off. He then jumped into the big tree, sniffing but not rubbing his cheek against nor hugging nor spraying at it. He is not yet sexually mature.

When Coco finally came over to say hi to Madonna, he was met with a roar, but she never growled at Coco as she did at Hulooo. Coco responded with more chuffs instead, catching Madonna off guard. Embarrassed he went off exploring the shelter again and Madonna followed his footsteps, chewing on the shelter’s log and then followed him into the tree. Before we knew it, the two started sniffing and chuffing at each other in very close range, with half-hearted head rubs. But enough came very soon as Madonna absented herself quickly while Coco picked up another bone to chew on.

Just when we thought they would be now taking their positions to sleep through the day, Madonna came STRAIGHT to Coco chuffing all the way until the two touched nose! But when Coco came to chuff at her later, he was met with snarl and growl. It seems that she only allows herself to chase a male but not the other way round. When Coco sheepishly left, Madonna got up and went in search of him again! Such is the whimsical nature of a modern woman - she has to call the shot!

This kind of exchanges occurred several times during the morning observation and the day ended on an amicable note, with Coco eager to get back to his waiting brothers. Maybe Coco will mature faster now that he has experienced Madonna's charming female scent?

It was JenB's turn on March 18th. The two met with friendly chuffs but Madonna became grumpy when JenB tried to play with her repeatedly. However JenB wouldn't give up. Only after a few rounds of unsuccessfully initiating play with Madonna he decided go and investigate the big tree. Initially, like Coco he showed interests in the scents on the tree but not crazy about it. But after a while, he started seriously sniffing the scents on the tree and rubbing his cheek against it, and made a position to almost spray. Maybe he is more mature than Coco who displayed no keen interests in the scents?

The different reactions towards Madonna by the three brothers seem to highlight that Hulooo, being hand-reared by humans and not a having a mother to interact and discipline him the way tiger mothers do, is unable to properly interpret the signals from other tigers, particularly from females. While JenB and Coco do know how to react to a tigress' whimsicalness, Hulooo got scared from Madonna's grumbles and snarls while JenB and Coco continued their friendly chuffing at her. .

Throughout the encounter between JenB and Madonna, Hulooo lay on the other side of the fence watching. Maybe he will learn something?? We need him to act soon.

SPECIAL REPORT ON CATHAY AND MADONNA’S ANTICIPATED BIRTHS

Cathay

On the night of 26 April 2010 Cathay refused her food and we waited in anticipation for the arrival of her baby. The following morning she was wandering around the camp without a care in the world, eating grass. Although she was much thinner than the previous day there was no vociferous cry from a new-born cub demanding its mother’s return. During the day she was also fairly active and didn’t rest in any particular place for any length of time. A surreptitious search of the Breeding centre and the quarantine camp revealed absolutely nothing which led us to believe that she had delivered only one cub and that it had been stillborn. Eddie van Eck of Lory Park Zoo was consulted by phone, during which all Cathay’s actions of the previous evening and following morning as well as her current physical condition were compared to her condition in the previous few days. Eddie confirmed that she had possibly suffered a stillbirth.

A careful search of the camp during feeding time later in the day also failed to reveal any signs of any delivery ever having taken place. This in itself is not unusual. In the case of a stillbirth instinct causes the mother to eat the stillborn cub and the placenta and cover up any trace that the cub/s had been born.

A layman’s definition of a stillbirth is when a female gives birth to a cub which is dead at birth. The medical profession describes stillbirth as either ‘intra-uterine’ or ‘intra-partum’. An intra-uterine stillbirth means that the baby has died in the womb. An intra-partum stillbirth means that the baby dies during labour. One possible reason for the stillbirth could be that the umbilical cord became twisted cutting off blood flow and oxygen supply effectively suffocating the cub. Another possible explanation could be that the cub had somehow turned into such as position as to block its nose for a length of time. A third possibility could be that the placenta could have detached prematurely. It is impossible to predict a stillbirth or even to do anything to aid its birth. Owing to the fact that we were not witness to the actual event we cannot say with any measure of accuracy whether the cub was in actual fact born dead or whether it died shortly after birth.

Following a stillbirth the female should come back into oestrus soon but we have decided to let her recover first and then put her back with a male the next time she comes into season.

Madonna

Madonna and 327 last mated on Jan 24th 2010. Thirteen weeks passed since Madonna then and we speculated that she was pregrant, especially since we observed that she showed physical signs of pregnancy such as an enlarged belly. However she came back into oestrus again in the 14th week (after 91 days) and mated with 327 again. There could be two-explanations. The first explanation it she might have suffered a miscarriage. Second one could be that tiger pregnancy prediction is often based on whether or not the female comes back into oestrus after a certain period of time, and according to traditional literature if a mating is not successful the female should again come into oestrus in three to nine weeks. We have already proven this traditional observation to be inaccurate as it took Cathay ten weeks to come back into season again after mating. Therefore, it is also possible that Madonna was never pregnant, also because visual observation of tigress’ belly size is not totally reliable. On 2 May she and 327 mated again.

A miscarriage is the spontaneous abortion of an unborn cub. Causes of miscarriage are numerous. One such cause might be genetic abnormalities so severe that life is not sustainable in utero for example, failure for an embryo to form a functioning heart or brain due to genetic misfiring.

It is unfortunate that both tigresses failed to give birth especially since his first and only cub was lost to a predator in Dec 2009. But we are going to give 327 another chance at siring a litter.

Victory Does Not Come Easy in 100 Ha Camp!

Rambling Rose


A pair of brothers

Another pair of brothers

The Brothers in Hunter Palace


ITV news crew was so lucky. They were here to report on our story and while we were filming Hulooo brothers in the new 100 Ha camp late afternoon on March 25, 2010, we saw King Henry and Princess hunting across the open grassland, chasing the 15 blesbok. In no time however, we heard distress calls, which caught the attention of Hulooo brothers (that were being filmed), who took off immediately in the direction of the kill.

We drove quickly into 40 Ha and found King Henry and Princess in the riverine area, with King Henry playing with and subsequently protectively guarding his kill when we approached. Dr. Gary Koehler who was visiting remarked: "Li, I can see this will work!"

Next day was the first time we EVER drove inside a camp where 327 is around. As we knew, 327 loved humans and was very fond of playing with us when he first arrived at Laohu Valley.
I had to let him into the 3 Ha wilderness camp eventually after he refused to mate with the tigresses, and amazingly he became less and less interested in us humans. He stopped standing up trying to play with us and later even stopped coming to the fence to greet us. These were all very good signs. What amazed me even more was when I decided to let Cathay try again mating with him, he performed and became a father in December last year!

In the past I would have never dreamed of driving into a camp with him, wary that he might stand up against the vehicle. However, now that he seems to be behaving more like a wild tiger, I decided to take the risk and see his reaction towards us humans. I took Dr. Gary Koehler inside the 7 Ha camp in the Rhino and 327 was right at the gate. However he showed no interests in either our vehicle or us people. We drove next to where he was lying, he even walked away. What a positive change!

I had some trouble though! 327 decided to "possess" me by spraying. He didn't do it just once! Twice he directed his spraying intentionally at me and his juice shot right inside my open Rhino, covering my full face and body. I felt however proud that he was marking me as part of his territory, against his rival TigerWoods, who lay on the other side of the fence observing him.

Eleven weeks passed since Cathay mated with 327 and she still has not come into oestrus (she is with 327 in the same camp for monitoring). According to our experience, this means she is pregnant! If that's true, we should be expecting her and 327's babies around 20 April. 10 weeks had also gone by since Madonna mated 327. If our past experience is any indication at all, Madonna is also pregnant and should deliver beginning May.

It rained all night and pot holes popped up on the dirt road leading to Tiger camps, and when we arrived in the 40 Ha camp in the early hours of March 26 2010, King Henry was lying in the grass, with a half eaten kill lying a few meters away- another blesbok lost its life overnight. Then one more blesbok was taken in each night of Mar 29th and March 31st.

Meanwhile, ten days into the 100 Ha camp, Hulooo brothers are still trying to find their feet. They weren't being fed for about 4 months while King Henry and Princess occupied the 40 Ha hunting camp so were becoming a bit reliant, like many spoiled teenagers do. From time to time, they would chase the blesbok but for the most part, they spent their time exploring and sniffing the new large area. Tigers are territorial, they must familiarise with every piece of rock and every blade of grass in their domain.

On March 31st, JenB and Coco turned to 2 years of age. Seeing that Hulooo brothers didn't have the will to hunt, I decided to first put them back into the 40 Ha camp, where they hunted only too well before, to get their drive back in familiar ground. I also wanted King Henry and Princess to go into 100 Ha, seeing they have been hunting for 4 months successfully in 40Ha.

It proved to be a challenge to swap the two groups of tigers. It took several days and some re-work on the iron gates linking the two camps before we finally succeeded in getting them swapped. Hulooo brothers were certainly busy, as they made 2 kills in the first night, and one can see their confidence was back as they no longer whined for food when we finally found them among the trees, just quietly enjoying our company.

King Henry and Princess were not idle either. We saw them busy stalking prey the second day inside the 100 Ha camp. 4 days into 100 Ha they were still not successful. King Henry came to the Gate when he saw us Monday April 5th, but left with the look of disappointment when he realised no food were forthcoming from his human carers. He ate grass while he walked away in the thunderstorm as if protesting. He also tried to call his sister-the first roars we ever heard from him. We were just going to give them another day to see if they would catch anything before we fed them. It would not be good to starve them too much that they loose the strength to hunt.

The next morning April 6th, we first tallied the number of blesbok in 40 Ha -three blesbok missing. Good hunting weather certainly aided Hulooo brothers who were getting too good. And in 100 Ha, it was much harder to count the blesbok. We counted numerous times and would not believe that the actual number had indeed dropped to 42 from 43, though we were all praying for that. Well, we could no longer deny the fact any more- King Henry and Princess had actually made their first kill in the 100 Ha camp overnight! These young ones also took advantage of the bad weather and their victory made history.