A MALE South China tiger cub was born at South Africa's Laohu Valley Reserve about 600 km south of Johannesburg at 11:30 p.m. Friday (local time), the Save China's Tigers Foundation announced Sunday.

Li Quan, founder of Save China's Tigers, said in a telephone interview it was a truly historic event because it was the first time a South China Tiger had been born outside China.

She said the male South China Tiger cub was healthy and strong. He weighed 1.2 kg at birth (larger than normal) and, although his eyes had not yet opened, he was already quite vocal, especially at feeding time.

He is the first cub born to the female tiger Cathay and the male tiger TigerWoods, who are both being trained to return to the wild at the Laohu Valley Reserve in a process known as rewilding.

The entire pregnancy lasted 103 days, the foundation said.

After the birth, which took 12 hours, the four and a half year-old Cathay displayed good motherly instincts but unseasonably cold weather necessitated the cub being removed to prevent it from dying from exposure.

The male tiger, TigerWoods, is three and a half years old and weighs approximately 140 kg.

The staff at Laohu Valley monitored Cathay for 24 hours after the birth, before releasing her back into the larger tiger enclosures. She showed no adverse signs of having her cub removed.

The cub is now being hand reared with the assistance of an expert from another wildlife sanctuary.

Staff plan to return the cub to his mother at a suitable time. Later, it will undergo the same training in preparation for a return to the wild as the older tigers did when they were sent to South Africa as cubs.

"The rewilding program of these highly endangered South China Tigers has taken a major step forward with the birth of this cub,"Li Quan said.

"The tigers brought to South Africa from China have now not only proven they can hunt and fend for themselves, they have also proven that cubs can be bred in a natural environment," she said.

"This event has given new impetus to the project," she said.

Some major conservation groups have written off the Chinese Tiger as "functionally extinct" but Save China's Tigers, the foundation that initiated and manages this project, aims to take zooborn tigers from China, rewild them and allow them to learn to hunt for themselves and to then breed them before returning the wild offspring back to China.

Since 2003, four tigers have undergone rewilding training at the Laohu Valley Reserve. They have learned to cope with the elements and to hunt a variety of prey from wild guinea fowl and hares to blesbok.

They have learned the necessary hunting skills of stalking and using camouflage techniques. To date they have successfully hunted more than 60 blesbok, proving that their natural instinct to hunt has not been lost.

Laohu Valley Reserve covers 330 square kilometers of land in both the Free State and Northern Cape Provinces. There are more than 10 species of endemic game on the reserve including blesbok, eland, springbok, black wildebeest, zebra, ostrich, as well as small predators such as jackal, caracal and African wild cat.

With the birth of this cub, the project is entering in a brand new stage. China is also doing preparation work to establish a pilot reserve for the eventual return of these rewilded tigers.

The South China Tiger retraining project has gained remarkable support worldwide. Not only has the Chinese and South African media reported on the progress of the project, but international media has regularly reported on the project as well.

Quan said: "To show my gratitude, an open day for all media will be held at Laohu Valley Reserve for the media to meet the new cub." Media will be notified of the date according to the progress and health of the tiger cub.

(Xinhua)