When a travelling circus came to town in central Argentina in 2007, it moved on without its star attractions — two Bengal tigers held in a cramped railway carriage. Abandoned and caged, their survival depended on a kindly farmer who began to feed them.
Fifteen years later the pair, and their two cubs that were later born in the carriage, have for the first time felt grass under their paws and rain on their coats after a rescue operation to find them a new home in South Africa.
Videos of the tiger family’s arrival at Lionsrock big cat sanctuary shows their first, tentative encounter with rough ground, with only sky above their heads.
“Finally the tigers will be free to roam, swim or just stretch out and enjoy their newfound space,” said Sonul Badiani-Hamment from the charity Four Paws, which organised the 5,000-mile journey to freedom that took years of planning.
The older pair, thought to be aged 18 and 15, would have been cubs themselves when they were discarded in San Luis, a town in the Sierras Grandes mountains.
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Their young, born approximately eight and ten years ago, have never known a life other than pacing behind bars. The farmer on whose land they were abandoned did his best to feed them, but little else, according to rescuers who found them in mounds of excrement and leftover bones.
After being caged for so long, the tigers could be easily stressed by too many new sights and sounds, so they will kept in small enclosures, divided into parents and siblings pairs, while vets monitor how they acclimatise to space and stimulation.
Part of their rehabilitation will gradually involve hiding food around the paddock and on a platform to encourage the big cats to tap into instincts to hunt and pounce. Acres of space, with bushes and trees, are waiting for them once they can cope.
“The tigers aren’t even used to lifting their legs on uneven ground, so we are being careful not to overwhelm them after a long journey and such a limited life experience,” Daniel Born from Four Paws, a global animal welfare organisation based in Vienna, said.
Lionsrock sanctuary, in Free State province, has a menagerie of more than 100 big cats rescued from misery all over the world including casinos, private collections and war-ravaged zoos.
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Poaching and the illegal wildlife trade have driven tigers to the brink of extinction with only 3,900 thought to be left in the wild. Every part of the tiger — from whisker to tail — has been found in illegal wildlife markets.
“Due to a lack of worldwide regulations, the commercial trade of big cats is flourishing. Live tigers are shipped across the world to be kept as pets and abused for human entertainment in circuses and zoos or for paid interactions. Tigers and other big cat species are killed for their skin, fur, bones and teeth,” said a Four Paws spokesman.
