Expat photographers, vloggersgive names to South China Tigers

A group of expat photographers and vloggers who paid a visit to the South China Tiger Breeding and Research Base take a group photo.

A group of expat photographers and vloggers paid a visit to the South China Tiger Breeding and Research Base in the city of Shaoguan in the northern part of Guangdong Province where they closely watched the behaviors of five tigers: Xiaoman (male, 6 years old), twin cubs Lianhua and Furong (female, almost 5 months old), Yuanyuan (female, 1 year old) and Qingqing (female, 7 months old), yesterday morning to mark the International Day for Biological Diversity.

The four tigers’ father is Xiaoman and their mother is Mengmeng, who didn’t show up yesterday.

During the visit, expats also gave English names to the twin cubs and joined the twins’ online adoption. After signing up for online adoption, they will be kept updated with the tigers’ photos and information which the “adopters” can share on their social media platforms to help let more people know about the species’ existence and raise awareness on their protection and habitat conservation.

According to the breeding and research base, there are currently 13 tigers (seven males and six females) at the base, four of which are juvenile tigers.

Colombian biologist Isaac Cohen (L) and Indian photographer Chakraborty Chiranjib take photos of the twin cubs Lianhua and Furong at the tiger kindergarten in the South China Tiger Breeding and Research Base in Shaoguan, while Cohen’s daughter Martina looks on yesterday morning.                                                                                                                                                                           Liu Xudong

Located in Shaoguan National Forest Park, the breeding and research base consists of a scientific popularization area and a breeding research area.

The South China Tiger is a population of the Panthera tigris tigris subspecies that is native to southern China. It is under the country’s first-class State protection and is one of the world’s top 10 most critically endangered species.

According to the breeding and research base, there are only about 200 of the species in captivity across China and the other two South China Tiger breeding and research bases are in Suzhou in Jiangsu Province and Longyan in Fujian Province.