China now has more than 500 Siberian tigers in captivity, according to an announcement made Thursday by the country's largest Siberian tiger breeding base, virtually the only specialized breeding center for the endangered species.
In a cozy delivery room, a female Siberian tiger that gave birth to two babies on Tuesday is lying at the obstetric bed, trying to hold both of the cubs in her arms.
These newborns, together with another three cubs born in early July, have brought the number of Siberian tigers in captivity to 524, up from 460 at the end of last year, said Liu Dan, chief engineer of the Heilongjiang Siberian Tiger Park, based in this capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.
"The big population can be translated into an improvement in the genetic diversity of the rare animal," Liu said.
A large beast of prey, the Siberian tiger emerged on the earth about one million years earlier than humans, roaming mainly in northeastern China and Siberia. Currently, there are less than 300 wild Siberian tigers in the world, and less than 10 in China. The World Wildlife Fund has included the Siberian tiger in the list of the world's top 10 endangered animals.
Founded in 1986, the park now covers a total area of 800,000 square meters and will have 570-580 tigers by the end of this year, much more than the only eight nearly 20 years ago. The tiger population is expected to double from current level, Liu Dan predicts on the basis of the animal's current reproductive ability.
China has long attached great importance to the protection of endangered wild animals, including Siberian tigers. A complete legal framework, with the Law on Protection of Wild Animals at the core, has taken shape.
In 1996, China added articles about punishments for the poaching and smuggling of wild animals under state protection to the revised Criminal Law. It also enacted a ban in 1993 on trading rhinoceros horns and tiger bones. The latter has been also deleted from the Pharmacopoeia of China, albeit that the country has a long history of using them in medical care.
Apart from illegal trade, a challenge to the Siberian tiger protection also came from the genetic decline in the population. Symptoms included retarded growth, blurred stripes, body deformation and semi-developed organs.
To solve the problem, the Heilongjiang Siberian Tiger Park and the State Forestry Administration jointly established a tiger DNA archive and developed a tiger genetics management system in 2003. Under the program, more than 300 tigers at the park will go through DNA tests, according to Wang Ligang, who is in charge of the park. The aim is to ensure birth potency, Wang said. The test results will help keepers select appropriate mating partners for females, Wang added.
Meanwhile, a tiger vet center has been built at the park, equipped with bio-chemical analysis devices, B-type ultrasonic instruments and an X-ray machine. Operation, test, cub nursing rooms have also been created. There are now nine veterinarians at the park, all of whom are college graduates.
(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2005)
