Tiger Conservation by Tigerman of Africa John Varty

The first time I visited Tiger Canyons, owned by John Varty, in april 2009 was a life changing experience. I never expected such an experience to happen, but being able to witness these amazing  cats was very special. Not only I think it is special, also National Geographic thought it is special enough to make a serie for TV called Tiger Man of Africa. Three episodes (The Mating Game, Baby Steps and Growing Pains) are broadcasted on the National Geographic Wild channel.

National Geographic's Tiger Man of Africa is a tue story about all the struggles tiger man John Varty and his bengal tigers are facing during their lifes. If you want to see more pictures of these tigers look on the  Tiger Photo's page where you can follow these tigers and tiger man John Varty in time.

A stunning number of 45.000 tigers live in captivity and less then 3000 are left in the wild. Despite all the money put in for saving the wild tiger (by WWF and others) the numbers are going down fast. So fast, that it is almost certain that the tiger will become extinct. India and China, the main area for wild tigers are not capable of protecting them. Poaching and human overpopulation (so loss of habitat for the tiger)  are the main threats for tigers. A dead tiger has in China (if you count all end-products made from the tiger) a street value of over 1 million USD.

Tiger Canyons' main goal is to rehabilitate captive tigers back to the wild. To make sure that in the future when Asia really can protect the tigers, there is a healthy gene pool of selfsustaining tigers that can be brought back to Asia. The project is managed by John Varty, one of the world's best experts on big cats. 

John Varty started his project in the year 2000 with 2 young tigers, born in captivity and he handraised them to be selfsustaining tigers. At this moment there are now 14 tigers thriving, the world's fastest growing population of free roaming tigers.

Tiger Canyons in South Africa is a safe haven for wild tigers outside asia. To me, it doesn't matter where they live free and protected, can be North America, Australia, Europe or as it is now at Tiger Canyons in South Africa. The land they live on is excellent for tigers, it has permanent natural water, reed lands, forest and cliffs.

The tigers live in a reserve what used to be a collection of old farms: goats, catlle and ostrich.  May be even cheetah and lion can be reintroduced. Believe it or not: cheetah lived in a big part of Asia overlapping the territory of tigers, they are now extinct in the wild in Asia. The same for lion, but there is still a small population of lion in India.

There are only two subspecies of tigers left. Panthera Tigris Tigris (or Mainland Tiger, which include the siberian, indo-china and bengal tiger) is one, the other is the Sumatran tiger. At Tiger Canyons all tigers are Panthera Tigris Tigris.

At Tiger Canyons there are 4 adult tigers, two males and two females named Shadow and Julie. Shadow has one litter born January 2009. The first time she showed them was only in September 2009.  Julie had three litters sofar of which she abandonned one. This litter also born in January 2009 is handraised by John Varty. Her last litter is born November 2009.

I walked with the 3 handraised cubs for 4 times at different phases of their young life. Over that period they developped from helpless, dependant, tiger cubs to confident tigers, ready to live a life of independance at Tiger Canyons.

White tigers are born at Tiger Canyons, the reason for this is selective captive breeding in the past. Tiger breeders were positively selecting the white genes because of their market value at circuses, zoo's and private collections.  A white tiger in the wild will always have a di sadventage.

Before judging this project, bear in mind that 45.000 tigers live in captivity and only 3000 in the wild. Tiger Canyons is an in-between station, tigers live in a fenced area, but they are free roaming and protected. 

In third world countries, the success of wild life protection is strongly linked to economical benefits for the people who live in the a rea together with wildlife. In India this is hardly the case, this in contrast to South Africa which has the best established wildlife tou rism industry in the world. As an example: the 17 private game lodges in the 70000Ha game reserve Sabi Sands support 1300 people directly with a job, indirect jobs are many, many more.

Tiger Canyons is not subsidised. Tourism activities are at such a small scale that it doesn't cover the running costs of this project. John Varty is just a man who loves tigers and tries to save them from extinction in the wild.

Jos van Bommel