In a secret action, exclusively sponsored by Rhulani Safari Lodge, a fully grown male tiger arrived at Madikwe Game Reserve early this morning. Madikwe is now the first game reserve in South Africa to offer this spectacular cat to our visitors, and it now receives an upgrade to be called a "Big 6" reserve.
The competition between the increasingly numerous game reserves in South Africa and the urge for attracting more visitors led to this spectacular innovation. Rhulani's owner Rolf Steiner, who despite long bureaucratic processes and preparations could keep the action secretly, says: "This is a milestone for Madikwe, and for Rhulani. It is really difficult to create new value propositions nowadays, but this is will certainly be a key selling point for the future". Thanks to our relations with the Indian wildreserve Ranthambore, we were able to acquire one of the very rare Bengal Tigers. We give him the name "Rhulo".
The box with the non-African predator arrived in the early morning. Rhulani's manager Gerda Kubirske was allowed to open the door of the cage as a sponsor. Soon Rhulo jumped out of the box, and it seemed as if the new surroundings would not cause any difficulty to him. The striped cat quickly ran away. Later, he was seen at Rhulani's waterhole, where our automated camera took a first picture.
"Tigers do not have natural enemies and are good hunters," says Rolf, who does not worry about the animal's survival. Rather, it is a question of whether the tiger will like the taste of our impalas, zebras, giraffes or wildebeasts, because in India, Rhulo mainly hunted Sambar deers.
Madikwe is now classified as a "Big 6" reserve. Rolf is very pleased. "This will greatly increase the attractiveness for safari lovers, because where else in Africa will you see wild tigers?" Whether our guests get to see Rhulo, is a good question. Tigers are very difficult to find and different to the lions they do not have favorite places. “But I am sure, our skilled rangers will soon know how to track the tiger!”, says Rolf.
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