The white tiger is still alive, as well as two lions.
At 9:00 AM yesterday morning, the chopper took off from Guanghan City's airport. A Bifengxia Zoo's transport vehicle was standing by at the airport with a special veterinary team led by the zoo chief. According to the plan, the two lions would be carried out first by noon.
30 soldiers and forest rangers in the valley already had the two lions and the tiger in cages under only a small dose of narcotics. The three cages had been sent in at 5:00 PM on June 10.
Even though the lions were less than 1 kilometer away from the platform, it would take almost 3 hours for the rescuers to hand-carry the animals in their cages, weighing hundreds of kilograms, trekking along the mudslide-damaged road.
At about 4 PM the three cages reached the platform.
However, Lu Erxue, the chief of the quake relief center of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), said due to the bad and suddenly-changing weather, and the steep, narrow and complicated terrain in the valley, yesterday's rescue efforts failed.
