Born in a Chinese zoo and named "Hope", he was brought to South Africa as a cub with his mate "Cathay" for a groundbreaking experiment that may be the last chance to save the species from extinction -- a "rewilding programme" aimed at encouraging the animals to hunt on their own.

The ultimate goal is for them to breed and impart their hunting skills to their offspring -- who will be then be sent to a reserve in China.

"We are giving them the opportunity to develop their survival skills," said biologist Gus van Dyk, who developed the "rewilding strategy."

"I am confident it can work. If you look at how domestic cats hunt for birds you see that it is instinctive," he said.

With only about 10 to 30 left in the wild and another 60 in captivity, the Chinese sub-species of the tiger clan is perched precariously on the brink of oblivion.

All five tiger sub-species, including the Bengals of India and the huge Siberians of Russia's far east, are highly endangered.

Feared as man-eaters but revered as majestic symbols of the wild, there are only a few thousand of the striped cats left in Asia, where they are being squeezed out by habitat loss in the face of swelling human populations.

Hence the decision to bring some to the land of the lion.

Now two years old, Hope and Cathay began hunting birds but have moved onto bigger prey.

They are now successfully killing blesbok, a white-faced African antelope that is similar in size to the deer species the tigers would encounter in the wild in China.

The odds are stacked in the tigers' favour at the moment as they are in a 62-hectare (153-acre) enclosure, into which the unsuspecting blesbok are periodically released.

They will soon be moved to a 600 hectare (1,483-acre) camp where they will have to work harder for their meals and where they will encounter a bigger variety of game, including wildebeest.

STRONG AND HEALTHY

In preparation for that move, the cats were recently tranquilised and fitted with collars with radio tracking devices.

They were also examined by a vet who declared them to be healthy and strong. Hope weighs around 90 kg (200 lb) and could grow to 120 kg or so.

This is small compared to other members of the tiger group but he looks no less intimidating.

"In the bigger area we will need to monitor their movements with the collars as it is very hilly," said Li Quan, the founder of the "Save China's Tigers" foundation and the driving force behind the rewilding effort.

The entire preserve -- known as the Laohu Valley Reserve -- is a huge 33,000 hectares (81,540 acres) and is comprised of 17 former sheep farms tucked in a dry and dusty corner of South Africa's Free State province.

Its fairly open and rocky landscape differs markedly from the forested reserves where the animals will probably be sent to in China.

But if they can hunt in open spaces then experts say they should find it even easier to stalk their prey in thick bush.

Laohu means "old tiger" in Chinese but the reserve only has young ones at the moment.

Another breeding pair, Madonna and Tiger Woods, arrived in October last year. Both are around a year old and are in the early stages of their "rewilding" programme.

Every few days they are fed a freshly shot springbok -- a small antelope abundant in the area -- which the male eagerly grabs by the neck, wrenching it from his keeper's hands.

"It is revealing that they instinctively know to go for the neck," said Quan.