Back To The Wild
Wild tigers are quickly vanishing from the Earth, and at the current rate of decline, they can be extinct in a decade, according to experts.
A new project to train tigers born in captivity how to live in the wild, however, may one day be used to teach the big cats to survive on their own.
Scheduled to air Sunday on the Discovery Channel, the documentary "Living with Tigers" follows the training of two sibling Bengal tigers from Cincinnati, Ron and Julie. It also introduces two pioneering conservationists who have bonded with them and shows the risk they have taken to save the tigers.
Zoologist David Salmoni, a conservationist and the tigers' main trainer, visits The Early Show Wednesday, accompanied by another Bengal tiger cub, Daily Ella.
Wild tigers are in danger of becoming extinct if the current rate of decline continues, according to Salmoni.
Tigers are in direct competition with human beings for space and livestock. Salmoni says the tigers' space to live is threatened by cattle grazing. Also, in Asia, farming is a big part of the culture, which further forces tigers out of their natural habitat.
Salmoni has been training the tigers for the past four years to survive in the wild. He tells co-anchor Harry Smith the idea should be credited to South African naturalist and filmmaker John Varty.
That is one of the reasons for choosing Africa, he says. "The other thing was that in Asia; the problems are really big over there. They're fighting with about a third of the world's population. Building a sanctuary is not something new in Africa. The challenge we took on is more, can we teach a tiger how to hunt? We are buying up sheep farms where the eco-system is destroyed and rehabilitating that land, using the tiger as our flagship species."
Currently, Salmoni says, there are more tigers in captivity than in the wild. If these tigers can be rehabilitated and taught to hunt on their own, this could be a significant way of saving the species.
To help train Ron and Julie, Salmoni moved them from the Cincinnati zoo to a newly constructed sanctuary in central South Africa, called Tigermoon.
Salmoni regards the tigers as his children and best friends. He does, however, acknowledge the two tigers as dangerous and deadly.
To train tigers, Salmoni says he uses positive reinforcement. He rewards them if they perform what he asks them to do. He also says he has had to define food sources for the tigers.
The program has no intention of releasing the tigers into a wild sanctuary in Africa. He says the program is rehabilitating African eco-systems and they are using the tiger as a flagship. Other species will be conserved under its wing.
Salmoni explains that Julie and Ron are brother and sister, and they will never mate. The tigers will, however, breed with other cats.