Tiger's Snowstorm Appeal
Dear Friends,
I have something distressing to report. While we were rejoicing at the successful birth by Cathay of two new tiger cubs July 20th, a severe cold front hit Laohu Valley Wildlife Reserve during the afternoon of 25 July 2011.
Cathay enjoys a snowy stroll during a milder 2006 snowstorm.
Heavy snowfall, freezing temperatures and strong winds coupled together to create catastrophic conditions. Throughout the area, roads, schools, businesses were closed and power failed. At first it looked like a Christmas Post card from middle-America with everything covered in a white blanket. Our Reserve Manager Heinrich Funck said that “It was the most snow that I have ever seen in Philippolis area. The snow’s thickness was between 150mm and 200mm (6 - 8 inches)”.
The ‘picture postcard’ quickly turned into a horror story for Laohu Valley Reserve and its operational team. The snow quickly froze on much of the many kilometers of fencing. The significantly increased weight, coupled with the higher wind resistance, caused many kilometers of fencing to collapse under the weight. In one of the larger tiger camps, (a 100 hectare facility), a 400 metre long section was entirely flattened in the south under the heavy weight of ice and snow and a 300 metre section along the northern part.
Steel fence posts were bent and some embedded in large blocks of concrete were totally unearthed. Fencing was also flattened in other tiger camps on the vast 300 sq. km reserve bordering the Orange River and the Free and Northern Cape States. Nature has certainly showed its tour de force!
Our staff immediately jumped into action and called for extra workers from neighbouring town of Philoppolis. First, we tried to literally beat the fences with sticks, knocking off the heavy snow. It was successful in some areas, but with the many kilometres and ongoing snow it was an increasingly challenging task. Staff and workers struggled all the dark night long in adverse conditions of howling winds, blowing snow and freezing temperatures. Sections of fencing were lifted with wooden poles and iron ‘Y’ stands and staff managed to secure those camps with tigers. We are so thankful for the passionate efforts of our staff in such hard and challenging conditions – far beyond the call of duty.
In the calm of the following days, we looked carefully to assess the damage and it was not good news. Large sections of fencing were completely flattened to the ground and some Y-stands were unearthed. Much of the state-of-the-art solar-powered electrical fencing and part of the electric tripwire fencing in the large camps will need to be replaced or repaired. Parts of the main electric fencing need to be repaired in the mid-size camps. The list goes on.
The great news is that the tigers were carefully monitored throughout the calamity and they are all safe and sound. None attempted to escape during the storm including two second-generation tigers that had been hunting in the large hunting camp. In fact, JenB and Coco even succeeded in making two captures, taking advantage of the bad weather. Others frolicked in the snow in the following days. Even the 5 month old Huwaa whom we were most concerned about seemed to have dealt with the cold very well - totally excited about the new activities caused by the snow.
The snowstorm represented a serious setback in ongoing improvements and infrastructure maintenance of the reserve, possibly setting back building and maintenance plans by 8 months. This is the second time in this year that we suffered severe disruption from adverse weather conditions. In January, we experienced the worst ever flood anyone in this region could remember which took us four months to recover. The tigers had to stop their hunting training while their hunting camps were being repaired. Immediate tasks include final damage assessment of the more remote reserve buildings and fencing, critical area fencing repairs as well as putting together a long-term recovery plan. Of course, with only a 100 left, job #1 is the on-going assurance to the health and safety of the world’s rarest tiger subspecies – the South China Tiger and to ensure they are able to resume their rewilding training as soon as possible. This is an increasingly profound responsibility with about 12% of the world’s population of the planet’s most endangered tiger in our care.
We have never shied away from the formidable challenges facing us in our efforts to save the South China Tiger. We will get past this challenge, as we have many of the others, but we need your support as this storm has put additional financial drain on our already sizable requirement needed for the breeding and hunt-training of the tigers. The South China Tiger is the ancestor to all tigers and has walked the earth for over 2 million years. We are launching this appeal to help assure they have the tools and facilities to assure they continue to walk this earth for many generations to come”.
We invite you to participate in our Appeal and donate now to our ‘Save China’s Tigers - Tiger’s Snowstorm Appeal’ on the SCT website:
http://english.savechinastigers.org/donatenow
For more photos of the snow storm damage: see:
http://www.laohuvalleyreserve.org/?page_id=1248
Meanwhile, the two new born cubs, all boys and sired again by proud stud 327, have lived through the first critical 10 days of their lives..
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you very much again for your support.
Li Quan
Founding Director, Save China’s Tigers
http://youtube.com/user/SAVECHINASTIGERS
http://tigerliquan.blogspot.com/ (TigerLi's Blog)
http://tigerliquan.blog.sohu.com/ (虎莉博客)
"I am grateful to our ancestors for leaving us the Chinese tiger -- the spirit of nature and the wellspring of culture. I pray, thanks to the united efforts of people worldwide, that the roar of the Chinese tiger will be heard echoing in the wilderness for generations to come"-Li Quan