Author: SAVECHINASTIGERS
Length: 06:42
It is a battle between a South China tiger named Cathay, a young antelope, its mother & sibling, at Laohu Valley Reserve in South Africa.Inspired by the Battle at Kruger, we thought to put our prized video of this fantastic hunt in our rewilding project on YouTube for the public. Tigers Cathay (the one with Radio Collar), TigerWoods and Madonna, newly re-released into the 42 hectare large training camp were hunting, following the gorup of antelop called Blesbok. Cathay however split off and disappeared into a gully. When TigerWoods got quite close to one antelope he started to chase. The antelope crossed over the gully and back in the direction towards where Cathay had been crouching low, not knowing that she has been hiding in the grass waiting for them. Cathay singled out a young antelope-about 8 week old and in a split second, leapt out and cuaght hold of it but it wriggled out of her grasp. The Tiger managed to snatch it again, back and forth a few times. The strange thing was that Cathay (who we thought was TigerWoods initally due to the distance) could have easily killed the small antelope but she did not. She seemed to be playing with it. Meanwhile the mother of the young tried to save its child! She and another charged back and forth at Cathay in an extraordinary action. Perhaps it was motivated by maternal instinct, or perhaps it simply under-estimated the ability of the tigers, having successfully escaped from being hunted in the past year. However its action finally cost it its life.When Cathay seemed to be playing Catch & Release, the mother antelope came charging back at the tiger. Cathay, in a most unexpected move of lightening speed, let go the young and grabbed the mother. The antelop was however very stoic and stood stiff as Cathay tried to topple her using the force of her mouth, but it took the tiger quite a while to drop the antelop. Only then was Cathay able to deliver the final bite.The young antelope meanwhile, had run away! It appears its mother's sacrifice had saved her child. WE saw it reunited with the antelope group two days later. Two things are extraordinary: First, an antelope mother does not try to save her offspring in the wild very often, knowing she would be no match for a predator. Second, Cathay could have easily killed the young antelope but instead she played with it. Was it because she was using it to attract the bigger one, or because her maternal instinct told her to capture the young antelope alive for the younger tigers so they could practice hunting by playing with it, just like big cat mothers in the wild?This video is copyrighted and cannot be used without the express permission of Save China's Tigers.www.savechinastigers.org