A sign at the entrance of Tiger Canyons now reads "For their own safety, all tigers at Tiger Canyons have satellite tracking devices".
Another sign reads "Abandoned at birth, raised by human beings, rare and beautiful, taken by greed"
Shine: 9 January 2009 - 15 August 2010
The death of Shine (Newsletter 37) still haunts me, but today things have become a lot clearer. On the day that she was killed, a rhino was killed near Tiger Canyons and the horn hacked off. I have always suspected but could never prove that the men that killed Shine were connected to the rhino poaching.
Recently, on Carte Blanche, Taiwanese citizens were arrested for trading in rhino horn and "lion body parts".
In 2010, an International Wildlife Agency monitoring the trafficking of illegal products, had contacted me and asked me if I knew of a trade in tiger body parts from South Africa. My reply was that I didn't think there were enough tigers to sustain the trade. I was wrong!
In South Africa there are over 5,000 captive lions providing the lucrative canned lion industry with trophies for overseas hunters.
In the Free State alone, 100 male lions can be shot in a single season. Normally the hunter takes the trophy, but not the body parts.
In addition, from a population of 5,000 lions, there will be natural mortalities from sick and old lions. etc. Let's say 5% natural mortality. This would be around 250 dead lions per year. Add another 300 hunted for trophies and it's conceivable that the body parts of 550 lions would become available.
A lion is not a Cites Appendix 1 animal and therefore the Taiwanese men can legally ship all the lion body parts to China. Once the body parts are in China, guess what, the "lion body parts" become "tiger body parts" and no one is any the wiser except the price of tiger body parts is so much higher.
I have been given a price of $15,000 for the body parts of an average size tiger. Therefore, 550 lions at $15,000 amounts to $8,250,000 or around R58 million.
So the ball game for the tigers at Tiger Canyons has changed. I must now accept that like owners of rhino's, I will now be a target for unscrupulous people who would attempt to steal a tiger for the canned tiger industry or kill a tiger for the body parts. The money is big, the trade is lucrative and the greed is higher than ever.
Even if the Taiwanese men go to jail, you can be sure there will be others exploiting the "lion body parts" loophole.
Thank you to Lane Batot and others who responded to my newsletter, Tiger Subspecies. The responses are on my website and are outstanding. When the Florida panther was so low in numbers, where did they go for panthers? To Canada! I hope they weren't "mixing subspecies" (smile). Another excellent example is where wolves and coyotes have crossbred naturally in the wilds. So it seems that nature too has its methods of cross breeding to keep species strong and to invent new species as well.
Back at Tiger Canyons, many photographers have written to me wishing they could have filmed and photographed the tigers in the snow. If it is any comfort to you, no one could get into the sanctuary, it was totally waterlogged. In addition, the weight of the frozen snow and gale force winds had collapsed the perimeter fence in three places, so we were back to repairing fences.
I decided to walk, cameras in hand into the tiger area, a pretty stupid thing to do. For my trouble, I got knocked down by the tigress Shadow, who was invigorated by the snow. I did manage to get these pictures captioned "Shadow charging from the snow"
Some truly breathtaking pictures have been entered for the photo competition. Because of the interest and all the setbacks, we have moved the closing date for pictures to 15th of November. We have decided to split the photo-shopped pictures from the straight pictures and have prizes for both, so send any type of picture you like. Only three pictures per photographer please. Children's photographs welcome, put your age on entry.
I was fortunate and privileged to film Zaria's first kill, a springbuck. (Zaria was hand raised and is now 30 months old) After she had caught the springbuck, she had no idea how to kill it, proving that the suffocating throat grip is learnt and not instinctive.
The new area is complete and fully stocked with suitable prey and is awaiting inspection by Nature Conservation.
A prize is being offered for the first photographer to capture a picture of a tiger swimming in the pools below the platform.
Tread lightly on the earth
JV
