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Tigers, alligators head for China theme, food park

 

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BEIJING - One hundred tigers and 2,000 alligators have been flown

from Thailand to China to grace an animal park where visitors will be

able to admire and eat some of the creatures displayed, a park

official said yesterday.

The Bengal tigers and Siam alligators were biding their time in a

breeding centre after arriving in Hainan island this week, before

moving into the " Sanya Love World " theme park ahead of its opening

next year.

 

Visitors will be able to have their photos taken alongside the big

cats and feed them. There will also be pig races and elephant shows,

said an official from Sanya Maitree Concept Corp Ltd, a Sino-Thai

joint venture.

 

" We will also build restaurants to let people taste alligator meat,

pharmacies for alligator medicine and build leather processing

centres, " she said by telephone, adding live alligators would also be

displayed.

 

" After we have bred tigers for a few years, we might have over 1,000

of them. Tourists are likely to eat tiger meat at Sanya, " she said,

referring to the beach resort on tropical Hainan off mainland China's

south coast.

 

The Web site www.sina.com.cn published a Jiang Nan Times story with

the headline: " A hundred tigers arrive in Hainan, Sanya to allow

eating tiger meat openly " .

 

But Sanya Maitree's general manager, Chi Zengqing, played down plans

to serve up tigers.

 

" This would be impossible, unless U.N. animal protection policies

changed, " he said.

 

" We would have the right conditions to benefit from policy changes as

we will be the biggest tiger house in the world. "

 

The tigers were provided by private Thailand Maitree Concept Limited

Company, the Thai partner in the joint venture, company officials

said. They declined to provide financial details.

 

Tigers have been bred in captivity in Thailand, where the government

has long denied farming the big cats to fuel an illegal international

trade of tiger bone parts, believed to wind up in some traditional

Chinese medicine.

 

Tigers, whose populations have plummeted by more than 90 percent in

the wild, are classified as endangered by the World Conservation

Union, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.

 

GRAND PLANS

 

China and Thailand are signatories to the Convention on International

Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, implemented in

1975, to regulate trade in endangered wildlife.

 

But tiger bones remain highly prized for their alleged medicinal

qualities in China.

 

Many Chinese believe tiger's penis is an aphrodisiac.

 

Only a few thousand Bengal tigers are believed to survive in the wild

globally, according to the WWF.

 

Sanya Maitree, a tie-up between state-run Sanya Tourism Investment

Limited Company and Thailand Maitree, planned to import a further

18,000 Siam alligators next year, along with 20 elephants and mini

Thai pigs, Chi said.

 

It is hoped the new animal park will be a winner among the growing

ranks of China's tourists, many of whom head to the island for its

palm-fringed beaches and night life.

 

Last year, about 11 million tourists from China and abroad visited

the island, according to a local government Web site.

 

 

Story by Tamora Vidaillet - Reuters

Story 27/12/2002

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