This is actually hella interesting, bc in simple terms, tigers are extroverts and lions are introverts. There’s more to it, but that’s the gist.
Whenever zoo’s tried to put lions and tigers in the same enclosures, the tiger would eventually try to groom the lioness and play constantly. The lioness would lose patience and snaps at them
So basically what I’m saying is that you have a regal and refined gf who stands at the edge of a balcony during parties, sipping champagne
Then you have the other girl who drank all of the little flutes on the servers platter, and is now drunkenly pointing at her gf and telling everyone that that’s her gf and doesn’t she look beautiful I love her so much
So I had to draw them in human form???
You drew them in the corresponding ethnicities for their Geographic locations!!! Bless you, you have no idea how sick and tired I am of white human lion king characters.
THE TIGER/LION LESBIANS ARE BACK!
CAT LESBIANS!
Listen, it is incredibly heart-warming, and I like everybody’s enthusiasm, however, this personally alarm me, because Tigers and Lions live in different habitat and never interact in wild. I don’t know what that tiger is doing in what appear to be an African savannah. So, I decided to look into the backstory of the screenshot.
Disclaimer, I am not an expert and all information are simply gathered by search engine. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Edit:I slowly write this essay as I am going through sources. By the end of it, I am exhausted and crushed. My tone slowly shifted from hopeful to despair. I do not wish to ruin your hapinness, but it is important that we must expose false information and harmful practice disguised as good. Warning of animal death below.
TL;DR : Both animal are killed by other tigers as they are housed in a small, over crowded enclosure with terrible management. They live in a privately owned “nature reserve” that claimed to rewild them, but they never get to be free. They all died.
The Introduction, who makes this video? Where was it filmed?
Unfortunately, Savannah, the lion has passed away, killed by another tiger in the reserve. The tigress Julie, who has become old, relied on her to help defend their territory. She was soon also killed by another tiger.
End
Savannah is Julies adoptive daughter, and she is exhibiting her Lion’s nature by staying with her “pride” and help Julie raise her siblings and defend the territory. I don’t‘ know if they engage in same sex behaviour. It is possible because it is documented in male sibling lions living together.
Tigers are a highly violent and solitary animal, and they won’t tolerate each other, only socialize face-to-face during mating season. It is possible that they engage in same sex behaviour too, but it has not been documented as any interaction is so rare.
Male and female tigers may kill each other over violent territory competition, and it becomes much more violent and bloody as their natural habitat is being destroyed.
But it is what not happening here. There’s no known South China Tiger, a sub species of tiger, population in wilderness of China, let alone Africa. This story took place in a nature reserve, Tiger Canyon.
The video uploader name is changed to JohnVary. (https://www.youtube.com/user/sunettefou/videos) But this name has connection to Tiger Canyon, as it is one of his private nature reserves. So, it is most likely the exact same video in the screenshot.
I can’t find an article about Tiger Canyon, but it is appeared that it is a part of Laohu Valley. This article (https://min.news/en/animal/57dacbf19a1b42c9b81d081c3b495864.html) mention Savannah and Julie by names. While the source video plays a song mourning Savannah’s death, this article get into more details of their time as they were alive and how they died.
End
Laohu Valley is a home of self-sustained, free-roaming South China Tigers in Africa. They hunt medium-sized prey animals normally eaten by lions. This project is met with concern of introducing an invasive species, but they were assured that the tigers are kept in a fenced-off area, completely tiger-proof. And the area was previously damaged from over grazing, and it will be beneficial to rebuild it into an ecosystem that can sustain tigers.
This is where I felt it is a red flag.
Part 3: TW Animal Death
TW: Animal Death, point of no return
Despite being named “Laohu, Tiger” the only place that is fenced to house tigers in the valley is only 1.8 Square Km (0.694 square miles). In 2019, it is reported to house 18 tigers and, 1 lion. I don’t know how much space a tiger need to thrive, but we have discussed that both animals were killed in territory dispute. Horrifyingly, this lethal fights seem to be common occurrences. These passages are copied from the article:
Thedensity of tigers in Laohu Valley is very high.The competition between tigers for territory is very fierce.
…
…and the other tigress, Mirage, had been the best for a long time. The territory of Savannah and Julie have also been defeated steadily by the joint fight of Savannah and Julie, and even failed to raise her own cubs in a few years.
…
There is no concept of closeness between each other. Many tigers will fight for territory with their parents when they grow up.
Two cubs that grew up with Savannah at the same time. That’s it, they are the tiger boys who killed their father’s male tigers when they grew up.
It is clear that this is not a facility that provide them good quality of life. Julie survived for so long because she had Savannah helping her.
Part 4: Savannah
Then,where does Savannah came from? That’s no natural population of lion in that area. In the original video, the song which mourn her death mention that she was:
Savannah born in darkness. Confined by wire cages, Is offered a chance of freedom, By a tigress and her cubs.
In the Laohu Valley Reserve in Africa, those with good things have done such an experiment, putting lion cubs that have lost their mothers in the tiger’s den, hoping to see whether the tiger will destroy it.
I do not know much, but I don’t think putting a defenceless cub inside an enclosure and left it at the total mercy of a tiger is a proper animal care.
Tiger Canyon is surrounded by a large body of nature reserve that house native African animal. So, it is entirely possible that they have stolen the cub. They claimed that Savannah lost her mother, but at this point I have doubt.
Part 5: Scandal concerning Tiger Canyon, and The Vartys
I am tired, I am sad. At this point I will just copy-paste articles.
Wildlife conservationist Li Quan initially enlisted the help of John Varty (wildlife filmmaker) and Dave Varty (eco-tourism developer) in South Africa to assist in the rehabilitation process.[7] However, Li Quan and her husband, investment banker Stuart Bray, became concerned that the Vartys were misusing the project’s funds to buy land for themselves. Later, in July 2002, the Vartys admitted to borrowing a small portion of Bray’s money.[7] After a legal audit, it was discovered that over R5-million had been borrowed by the Vartys, having been used to pay off the Vartys’ Londolozi Productions debt on unauthorized salaries. Some of the money was also said to have gone into the Vartys’ personal loan accounts and towards paying off their Betty’s Bay seaside property.[7][8] Finally, in October 2002, a few weeks before an agreement was due to be signed with Chinese authorities after the Chinese Wildlife Department began to recognize the project’s conservation value,the Vartys pulled out of the project.[7] John Varty has since founded his own “tiger rewilding” project, Tiger Canyons, also near Philippolis, using the land he acquired with Bray’s funds. However, because Tiger Canyons uses unendangered hybrid breeds of tigers, it has been criticized as having no conservation value, as well as for being used solely for the purpose of creating the film Living with Tigers, which would air on Discovery Channel.[9]
This documentary features a Bengal tiger re-wilding project started by John Varty in 2000. This project involvestraining captive-bred Bengal tiger cubs by their human trainers so that the tigers can regain their predatory instincts.
A strong criticism about this project is with the chosen cubs. Experts state that the four tigers (Ron, Julie, Seatao and Shadow) involved in the re-wilding projectare not purebred Bengal tigers and should not be used for breeding. The four tigers are not recorded in the Bengal tiger studbook and should not be deemed as purebred Bengal tigers. Many tigers in the world’s zoos are genetically impure, and there is no reason to suppose these four are not among them.[2]
The tigers in the Tiger Canyons Project have recently been confirmed to be crossbred Siberian/Bengal tigers. Tigers that are not genetically pure are not allowed to participate in the tiger Species Survival Plan, which aims to breed genetically pure tiger specimens and individuals.[6]
Thedocumentary has been alleged by some to be a fraud.[7] One source claims that the tigers are unable to hunt, and the film crew chased the prey up against the fence and into the path of the tigers just for the sake of dramatic footage. Cory Meacham, a US-based environmental journalist mentioned that “the film has about as much to do with tiger conservation as a Disney cartoon.” An additional assertion is that the tigers have not been releasedandstill reside in a small enclosure under constant watch and with frequenthumancontact. Some conservationists fear the public’s being misled by false representation of footage.[8] (dead link)
TL;DR
TW: Animal Death
Both animal are killed by other tigers as they are housed in a small, over crowded enclosure with terrible management. They live in a privately owned “nature reserve” that claimed to rewild them, but they never get to be free. They all died.
End
Foot note: R5 million is most likey mispell of 45 or 55.
⚠️Thank you for the Fact Checking and Fact Gathering ⚠️
seriously. This was a lot of work and it is a horrendous emotional toll. I feel a little guilty I hadn’t looked deeper into this even though I was aware tigers and lions don’t cross paths in the wild. I was too captivated by everything else and I guess I assumed this had all happened under decent circumstances. However, I am glad you paused and took time to bring this to light.
Thank you. Its important. (And I hope others who have read the original post see this and reblog this)
