Junior Has A Name and He is Back
First born South China Tiger cub gets his name and returns to Laohu Valley Reserve in the Free State
The naming process for Cathay’s first born “TigerWoods Junior” collected 7,635 different names. These names demonstrated the love and good wishes from people all over the world. Some names describe the tiger’s role as “king of the beasts” in Chinese culture, for example, “XiaoShanEr (shout mountain)”, “NanWangZi (south prince)”. Others emphasize the historical significance of the South China Tiger, such as “HuaBiaoEr (China shouter)”, “HuTouEr (Tiger leader)”. Save China’s Tiger is very grateful for such good will. It has been a challenging task to choose just one name.
The rough criteria were:
1st prize: meaningful, unique and not trademark registered
2nd prize: meaningful, unique but trademark registered
3rd prize: meaningful or unique
The final choice of the name for Junior is “Hulooo”. “Hu” means tiger, and “Looo” describes a sound. Together it means:
-The chuffing sound that tigers make to greet one another – “hello” in Tiger language.
-It rhymes with the sound of the Chinese word for a mythical gourd which contained treasures and was carried by an ancient saint.
Ms Li Quan, founder of Save China’s Tigers said “We would like to thank all those who participated in the naming process and we hope in the future to use some of the proposed names for the new cubs”.
On 16 April 2008, Hulooo returned to Laohu Valley Reserve from Lory Park Animal and Owl Sanctuary in Midrand, where he had been cared for since December 2007. He had been sent to Lory Park to be hand reared and to ensure that he receives the best medical attention during his early months and to complete his vaccination cycle.
He has already settled into his tree camp and has explored the entire camp. At almost 5 months of age he is remarkably strong and his teeth and claws are already quite lethal. He will now undergo rewilding training as did the other tigers.