Corbett's Freedom

Corbett confined in small boma

Hello Friends 

After receiving so many angry, caring and passionate emails, messages on our blog, twitter and facebook, I now feel positive about the future of the Tiger Corbett. 

I made people "physically ill". I've been compared to Mugabe and to the Hitler. I've been offered a choice between death and castration.  Can I come back to you on that one!

On the positive side, I received potential homes for Corbett in Colorado, the Sunderbans, Siberia, Sariska, in South Africa and in China where he can "hunt Chinese tiger poachers".

Many of you thought he needs a mate and sex, others thought castration will get rid of his aggression. 

tigers mating

Others told me that I must not "dilute the gene-pool". Jules Brenner sent me an article (American Scientist) about the aggressive gene. This was valuable input and I thank you.

Cam Steele believes this world is for "every animal, not just for humans". Gary Thomas told me that I "lived to tell the tale, let Corbett live to share the tale". 

The main thing is that hundreds of people participated in the debate and hopefully a good decision was made.

It is amazing that with technology, we can talk to each other across the world. All of us concerned for this planet have communication tools to change, to save, to adapt. 

The human population is now 7 billion people and we are pushing many species, including the tiger to the brink of extinction. 

I'm doing well in hospital and walked 800 steps without help today. Hopefully I will be back at Tigers next week and can continue with rehab at home.  

During all this time, I have of course gone through my own evolution and this is what I have decided to do:

I will create a 300 Ha area for Corbett. On the ground, the fence will be heightened and strengthened. Where there may be danger, double gates will be installed.

Animal communicators will be invited to communicate with Corbett in his boma and then when he is set free to see how he feels. 

If you would like to contribute to Corbett's boma, you can do this through the Savannah Fund (see below).

In addition, I will shortly hold an auction in Johannesburg to raise some of the R3 million that I need (details will follow). 

One of the things we will auction, is a life size bronze statue of Corbett. As I write this well known artists John Bassi is working out the logistics of how to create this magnificent bronze which will weigh 300 kilograms.

At the auction 15 of the best photos by Daryl and Sharna Balfour, Lorna Drew and Yvette van Bommel will be auctioned off.

Safaris from well known lodges will be auctioned, two big cat safaris will go under the hammer.

For any collectors, replicate jackets of the one JV wore which gave him protection against Corbett's teeth, will be auctioned. 

My new book "Hand Brake Safari - A Journey with Tigers" will be launched. Written with humour, it tells of the last 12 years of tiger conservation. The blood, the sweat, the tears, the joy, the sadness and of cause the attack.

At the auction there will also be a thank you ceremony for Julie Brown, Julie Ann Reid and Phumlani Nchunu whose incredible bravery saved my life. 

If anyone has anything of value, a painting, an art piece, a herd of blesbuck, a sable bull antelope, anything that has value that can be auctioned, please contact Sunette (info@jvbigcats.co.za)

We will let you know the final details of the auction, however, the first of June at 6pm in Johannesburg has been targeted.

When the new boma is completed and fully stocked with prey, Corbett will be darted, weighed, measured and then he will be transported to his new area. One or two mature tigresses will join him. The area will be stocked with kudu, warthog, mountain reedbuck, blue wildebeest, impala, blesbuck and springbuck. 

In the meantime, I need to get back to full fitness. Thank you again for thousands of messages from across the world. In my darkest hour, I could feel the positive energy.

Thank you to the staff, the sisters and the doctors that treated me at MediClinic in Bloemfontein. I am extremely grateful.

The threat by lethal injection of Corbett is gone and the freedom route will be followed. You have the satisfaction of having influenced my decision and I thank you for it.

Tread lightly on the earth

JV

Savannah Fund:

SEVEN FALLS TRADING (PTY) LTD
FIRST NATIONAL BANK - TROMPSBURG
A/C 62094732693
BRANCH CODE: 230932
SWIFT CODE: FIRNZAJJ
IBAN: 230932 62094732693
FIRST NATIONAL BANK
32 CHURCH STREET
TROMPSBURG
9913
SOUTH AFRICA

Lethal Injection or Freedom?

Corbett (right) with siblings, Sariska and Panna (picture Sunette)

Hello Friends 

JV talks from hospital in Bloemfontein - on YouTube

I have had many hours at night to contemplate my future and analyze what went wrong. I have come to my conclusion that no mistakes were made, Corbett got lucky, but he hunted me fair and square. 

JV's leg wounds

Had his sister, Panna, not come out on the rock and deceived me into thinking it was him, I would have been far more cautious. The last few metres he covered the ground in a split second, it was incredibly quick.

In fact, when he caught me, I was moving away from the gate. The job was complete, yet he had the presence of mind to reach through the gate and grab me.

When a male tiger is ready for dispersal, nature equips him with everything he needs to become a territorial male. Firstly, his body bulks up, Corbett is in magnificent physical condition, his neck swells to make himself look even more ferocious.

He is prepared to take more risks as he searches for a new territory. This could be his first time of interacting with mature females. Sex, like in every animal, is a strong driving force.

Corbett can't do this, he is in a boma. He is confined when he needs freedom the most. He is angry with me. He was once wild and now he is confined.

I am not ashamed to say I am in awe of this magnificent cat. At the same time, I am afraid of him. He is the one cat of the 14 that has the power to destroy this project and take 13 other tigers with him.

I come from a background of wild life management. I have been taught to look holistically, to save the species, not the individual.

Take into account that in the 80's, I personally culled over 60 lions to protect the dwindling wildebeest populations in the Sabi Sand.

In the drought of 1985, when the buffalo were starving, I killed over 200 buffalo and fed the meat to the surrounding human populations.

I waited for tens of hours outside Zambia's Luangwa National Park to kill a crocodile that has killed and eaten over 65 people.

I have killed by lethal injection leopard and lion that could no longer catch their natural prey and were on the way to becoming man-eaters.

Therefore I am no stranger to these tough decisions.

Corbett confined (picture JV)

Consider Corbett's options:

1) Sell him to a zoo. There are 45 000 tigers in zoo's around the world.

2) The Tiger Canyons Constitution is clear - the tigers at Tiger Canyons must be free ranging - Corbett is confined.

3) Hunt Corbett for $200 000. I get numerous offers to hunt tigers, it is illegal. Tigers are under CITES Appendix I - they cannot be hunted and anyway, it is against my personal ethic.

If anyone has an alternative to my proposal, I would welcome any other route. Let's explore every avenue possible.

Corbett will be darted and then killed by lethal injection by a professional vet. His body must be treated at all times with dignity. I will have the vet systematically remove his body parts and this is where I need your help.

I intend to find the leading scientists in the field to test the body parts and to state categorically whether or not there are any useful medicinal properties as the Chinese claim. I will go to the best universities in the world to achieve this. Corbett will not die in vain.

Read Daryl Balfour's excellent response to my proposal:

JV and Julie (picture Daryl Balfour)

Dear JV, 

I have just become aware of your thoughts - and I pray it is not a decision fait accompli - of shooting/destroying Corbett! 

Please do not allow yourself to make this decision while you are lying in your hospital bed, in pain and possibly confused.  

Your many, many fans around the world, and me and Sharna included, will be totally devastated should you take such a drastic step. Such knee-jerk reactions can be expected by wildlife managers such as the old KNP lot, who for instance sent out the order to destroy the elephant Tshokwane after he trampled me. Fortunately I regained consciousness in hospital in Nelspruit before the order could be carried out, and was able to send my pleas for the elephant to the park warden, who acceded to my request. My point was that the elephant did what bull elephants sometimes do, that I was on foot in his terrain, and the risk was all my own. Nobody other than I was to blame, and certainly not the elephant. 

Although I was not present when your accident occurred, from what I have gathered Corbett attacked you as a potential male rival for the in-oestrus Julie, while you were closing a gate adjacent to where he was. This is natural behaviour, and you, JV, are to be commended for having managed to rear totally wild, naturally behaving, tigers in the heart of the Karoo. Destroy Corbett and you lend credence to all the nay-sayers & critics who like to refer to Tiger Canyons as "JV's tiger zoo". To the best of our understanding, Tiger Canyons is meant to be a game reserve where tigers roam in as natural conditions as possible. It should not be a place where people can get out of their vehicles and walk around, petting tigers. 

The accident (if I have the scenario correct) occurred because you were not concentrating, were not following your own strict safety protocols. If anything, the incident should simply make you more safety conscious, less willing to step out of a vehicle anywhere near wild tigers. 

I understand fully the reasons behind shooting known man-eaters...once a lion/leopard/tiger etc tastes Man, it will target this soft-skinned prey forever after. To my understanding though, Corbett did not manage to actually bite you (correct me if I am wrong) and his injuries to you were caused by his claws. Corbett is NOT a man-eater...he is a naturally wild and aggressive tiger whose testosterone levels were elevated due to the presence of an oestrus female nearby. Had he killed you or anyone else, become a Man-eater, the situation would be somewhat different. 

As Sunette asks in her email, should the tigers of the Sundarbans be destroyed because they occasionally kill & eat fishermen?  

Euthanize Corbett at the risk of losing thousands of your fans, much of the support for Tiger Canyons, and the respect of people who currently hold you in awe. 

I really think this is a decision that should not be taken until you are well over the ordeal, have returned to Tiger Canyons, and are able to assess the situation on the ground. 

A week later, Daryl changed his mind...

I have given Corbett a lot of deep thought and now agree that JV needs to put him down, painful as this realization is. The liabilities are just too enormous. He is proven to be aggressive, not only the attack on JV now, but his previous attempt to smash through the wire to get to JV when he was walking to the reservoir. That is now all public knowledge. 

If Corbett did manage to smash through the fence and kill an innocent person walking past the farm, say, down near the bottom road, Nature Conservation would probably insist the entire farm be closed down and JV would be sued for everything he's got, and we'd lose all that Tiger Canyons stands for.  

Corbett is likely to do this again, he's obviously anti-human now (despite Ricky's experience in the floods) and the risks not only to JV but to other tourists at TC are just too high. 

Sadly, if a leopard at Londolozi broke into a room, or climbed on to the deck and attacked someone there, it too would be put down. Wild animals are meant to have a natural fear and aversion to humans, particularly here in Africa and Asia where they evolved alongside of us, Man the Hunter. 

Yes, the sad facts are that Corbett is confined, frustrated at not being able to fulfill his breeding imperative, and JV needs much more land. In the interim, I think the least horrible thing to do is put him down humanely, not into a zoo cage, and not at the hands of some stupid big game hunter who'd probably injure him first.

Daryl Balfour

Safaris: www.wildphotossafaris.com

In my first newsletter, I've failed to thank the following people:

Dr du Toit Botha and his wife, Adri, who treated me in Philippolis, Dr Carin van Schalkwyk who organised the opening of the stops on the N1 for the ambulance. I would like to thank the ambulance drivers and paramedics who treated me for their excellent skills in keeping me alive.

In a conversation with Dr Willie Marx who assisted with the first operation, he gave me 10% chance of surviving the infection.

Today I have taken my first tentative steps, only 20 metres, but better than nothing.

Once again, I would like to thank every one around the world for their love, prayers and positive energy. I assure you I will be back soon into Tiger Conservation.

Tread lightly on the earth
JV