This tale is from the Nanjing Pearl Spring Wildlife Eco-Zoo where a keeper drove an ox into the tiger enclosure. He had expected a bloody encounter. But the two animals seemed to get on with each other just fine.

In April of this year, 100 tigers, 60 lions and 80 black bears were relocated from Guilin in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province. Having now weathered a scorching summer in the zoo, the animals have become acclimatized to their new environment. The keepers decided to check out the wild nature and vigor of one of the tigers. After all, their zoo is actually styled as a "wildlife eco-zoo."

When the tiger first saw the ox in its enclosure it crouched down, alert and close to the ground. It fixed its gaze on the ox and seemed about to leap on it. But after a short while, the tiger realized the ox was not going to attack. It began to relax its vigilance and walked up and down, still keeping a close watch on the ox.

Meanwhile the ox was clearly scared, its legs were shivering and it kept a good distance between itself and the tiger.

After a few minutes more they just stopped watching each other and relaxed happily sharing the same space. Unlike the ox, the keeper was disappointed and drove it back out of the enclosure. The tiger is a carnivorous animal. The introduction of the ox should have aroused the wild side of its nature. Why then did it not attack and eat the ox?

Li Guosheng is head of the Breeding and Rearing Department at Nanjing Pearl Spring Wildlife Eco-Zoo. He explained what had happened to the Jiangnan Times reporter, "These tigers were bred and raised in an artificial environment. They did not have the benefit of education about prey from their parents. The survival skills so necessary for life in the wild have been degraded. Another reason is that the zoo prepares food for them every day. They don't need to go out and hunt. So it's not difficult to understand why the tiger was not interested in an ox even when put right in front of its mouth."

In the light of this phenomenon, leading officials at the wildlife zoo in Nanjing said that they would now have to give wilderness training to these "wild animals." They hope to be able to awaken the natural predatory instincts in their tigers, lions and other large carnivores.

(china.org.cn translated by Zhang Tingting, September 13, 2002)