Difficult Hunt Tiger Hope Conquer Antelope in South Africa!

• published: 17 Jan 2015
• views: 2

The hero of this video is Hope, one of the pioneer tigers in the South China Tiger Rewilding & Reintroduction program. Hope unfortunately died of lung disease and heart failure in August 2005 but he left us with this fantastic memory of him. On March 15th 2005, Hope and Cathay embarked on their first day of rewilding training after their radio collaring. Three antelope were released that day. Cathay tackled the first one and Hope came to her assistance quickly. For some reason, the tigers seem to have trouble delivering a fatal bite to the antelope today. It could be that they still suffer some side effect from the anesthesia as they were panting heavily, as if lacking the strength. On a couple of occasions, Cathay held the antelope in a way almost like embracing a pet. Afterwards Hope went after a second one which jumped left and right and up and down. At one point, Hope's front paws were holding onto to it while his hind legs were jerked off the ground by the frantic antelope. He managed to push the antelope down to the ground. However, before he finished off this antelope, his eyes suddenly caught the sight of the third running antelope and went after it with Cathay. Hope gave up after a little while being too tired. In the meantime, the second antelope was crouching in the grass. Hope slowly walked back to it. When he got close, the antelope struggled to stand up. Although its right hind leg injured, he was still able to stand. Hope was a bit taken aback when the antelope confronted him in a challenging position. With the pair of horns right in his face, he looked unsure of himself. For quite some time, the tiger and the antelope were staring at one another eye to eye. Hope even backed down a few steps to avoid being poked in the face. Hope kept looking away- was he looking for Cathay in order to get help? Feeling lost? Or buying time? He started circling around the antelope, but the antelope turned to face him with its horns no matter which direction Hope turned and challenged Hope.. Hope was visibly irritated by the antelope's action and the next move the antelope made proved to be fatal -Hope jumped up with a swirl of his body and pushed down the antelope with both his paws and a bite on its neck- He had avoided the sharp horns and proved that he had been just waiting for the antelope to make a fatal mistake.