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A five-year-old South China tiger will leave for South Africa at the end of the month to become the mate of a tigress who has been learning how to hunt there.

It will succeed Hope, who died of inflammation of the colon in 2005, as the husband of Cathay, according to a zoo official in Suzhou, in east China's Jiangsu Province.

Two tiger couples have been sent to South Africa since September 2003 for a program that trains them to survive in the wild, seen by some people as the last chance to preserve the species.

The plan was for them to impart their skills to any cubs they might eventually produce, who would be sent to a reserve in China.

With only about 10 to 30 left in the wild and another 60 in captivity, the Chinese sub-species of the tiger clan is on the brink of extinction.

The five-year-old tiger is 70 centimeters tall and weighs 140 kilograms. It is in good health and able to breed.

It was vaccinated against rabies and had an electronic chip implanted last month as part of its preparation for the trip, the Suzhou zoo official said.

It will also be trained to hunt, but the Suzhou zoo insists that the tiger be returned after the mission in South Africa.

Cathay and the other couple were taught to hunt at the Laohu Valley Reserve in South Africa's Free State province -- at first killing birds, and then graduating to antelope.

They are now able to catch sheep.

(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2007)