Chinese Beauty Rewilds Beasts in Africa

CCTV reported on November 28, 2007 that Cathay, a female South China tiger, a species on the verge of extinction, had given birth to a baby tiger in South africa. It is the first South China Tiger born in the wild and known to the zoologists over the past 20 years. The sensational news cast Quan Li (her surname is Quan, pronounced approximately as true-an), a chinese woman, into international limelight again. How come the woman, a Beijing native, a speaker of seven languages and once the executive of Gucci’s worldwide licensing business, devotes herself to wildlife preservation and raised 10 million US dollars to set up a breeding paradise in South Africa for the endangered Chinese tigers?

Born into a military family in 1967 in Beijing, Quan Li has loved animals since her childhood. Photos at home show she poses with animals. The woman typical of oriental beauty has a passion for fierce large carnivores such as tigers, lions and leopards. In her eyes, they are perfect creatures because of their beautiful strength, agility, flexibility and alertness.As a child, she dreamed of growing up and becoming a zoologist specialized in wildlife. Disappointed that no Chinese colleges offered a wildlife specialty when she graduated from high school, she chose English as her major. After graduation from her four-year study at Peking University, she went to Wharton Business School, USA in May, 1987. Two years later, she was offered a marketing job in Europe for a soft-drink company. She moved from Spain to Italy in 1990 and worked as a brand executive for seven years. After she married Stuart Bray, a London-based American investment banker, she resigned from her high-profile job and moved to London and became a homemaker in March 1997.

With all the time in her hands, Quan Li found she needed something more colorful and exciting. So she traveled to South Africa in the summer of 1997. It was there that she fell in love with the primitive and pure nature free of the pollution of the modern civilization. During the long trek, Quan Li witnessed an advanced wildlife conservation system operating excellently in South Africa. She was impressed with the system and the endless grassy plains. It was during this period that Quan became aware of the endangered South China tigers. It occurred to her that she could probably do something to save the tigers. She flew to Beijing and met with officials of the State Forestry Administration. Her initiative to save the Chinese tigers was warmly embraced by the administration, although some international experts thought this species was doomed to extinction and some Chinese experts believed it was too late to do anything to save the South China tigers. Quan Li decided to go ahead against all the pessimistic prospects.

In October, 2000, London-based Save China’s Tigers came into being. It is the world’s first charity foundation established to save China’s tigers and other large cats. The foundation set up a website to promote the cause. BBC also reported the event, which attracted international attention.

Quan Li believes the biggest problem for the survival of the Chinese tigers is not experts, money, or new ideas. In her opinion, the survival of the precious creatures hinges on their genes. The tigers number about 50 in zoos across China and experts estimate that there may be 10 to 30 South China tigers roaming in the wild of the central kingdom. The zoo life in human captivation and inbreeding has brought degradation to the tiger genes, leading to serious problems in reproduction and survival rate. Quan believes that the only way to save the tigers is to radically change their living environment and find a new way for breeding.

South Africa, a wildlife paradise, looked like a perfect solution to Quan Li. With one million US dollars, a large piece of grassland was bought. To her astonishment, she found the land deal was a fraud staged by two film producers. She sued the two producers. The lawsuit caught the eyes of many zoologists in South Africa and they became aware of Quan Li’s efforts to save the rare Chinese tigers. In a few months, Quan Li set up the world’s best rewilding training team for the Chinese tigers. On behalf of her foundation and her team on November 26, 2002, Quan Li signed an agreement with the Chinese government to introduce the Chinese tigers to South Africa.

Quan Li and her husband spent another five million US dollars and bought altogether 17 bankrupt ranches. The ranches combine to cover a land of 3.4 million square kilometers for the tigers. Surrounded by mountains, crisscrossed by rivers and dotted with pools, the grassland is home to zebras, ostriches and antelopes, cranes. Quan Li named the land aohu Valley?Reserve (Laohu means tigers in Chinese).

Cathay and Hope, two baby tigers from Shanghai Zoo, arrived in the valley in October 2003 after a long journey of flight. To acclimate them to the wild environment proved very challenging. In the first few days the tigers ate beef only and refused anything else. After a week, they reluctantly tried minced pheasant meat. The two young carnivores were extremely friendly to living pheasants and sparrows. The tigers gave chase to rabbits and panted and gave up after a short chase. They were scared by the carcass of an antelope and did not know it was their food. It took them a day to figure out how to eat the antelope. But they were learning.

On July 21, 2004, the two tigers chased an antelope. They almost captured it. Four days later, Cathay and Hope hunted an antelope from different ways and zeroed in upon it. The inexperienced tigers captured the antelope and killed it in five minutes. It was the first time that the two Chinese tigers from a zoo captured a wild antelope. They were not yet two years old. That night, Quan Li and her colleagues celebrated the epoch-making event. The experts saw great hope for the rewilding training. Soon, Madonna and Tiger Woods, two other Chinese baby tigers, arrived and joined Cathay and Hope. The new comers learned hunting skills rapidly. Within half a year, the two new tigers staged a successful sneak attack on anantelope and captured it successfully.

The bigger, happier news came in August, 2007. In August Cathay and Tiger Woods copulated and in November Cathay gave birth to a baby tiger. The male cub weighed 1.2 kilograms and was larger than normal tiger babies born in zoos. Quan Li and her colleagues wept. When the sensational news reached China, the Chinese zoologists across the country roared in ecstasy and excitement.

The tiger-saving project has used more than 10 million US dollars, most of which comes from the purse of Quan Li and her husband. Fortunately more people have joined the project. At present there are hundreds of people across the world dedicated to the project.

Quan Li plans to train about 10 Chinese tigers in South Africa so that a tiger community can form before they are released in the wild of their home country. Quan Li says that tigers are flagship creatures. She hopes that the tigers will help restore biological diversity in the wild and that if the rewilding training mode succeeds, it can serves as a model to save other species of wild animals.