By Lisa-Marie Els
The South China Tiger has almost fallen victim to the most dangerous species inhabiting planet Earth - humans.
The tigers' brush with oblivion has been close: there are only 76 of the beautiful beasts living in captivity, and it is suspected that there are none left in the wild.
They are so endangered that the World Bank has written them off as extinct.
But, all is not lost. Li Quan - founder of the Save China's Tigers organisation - has announced that a tigress named Madonna gave birth to two cubs at the Chinese Tiger Rewilding Centre at Laohu Valley Reserve in the Free State recently.
"It is a breakthrough," said Quan. "This is the first time a captive South China Tiger has given birth in completely natural conditions. There was absolutely no human interference. We actually couldn't even confirm the birth until 10 days later... the cubs were so well hidden by the mother," she said.
In 2000, four Chinese tiger cubs were transported to South Africa. The organisation secured 300 square kilometres of land in Philippolis, Free State, and established a rewilding centre at Laohu Valley Reserve.
The tigers - Tigerwoods, Madonna, Cathay and Hope - settled in quickly and soon started to "breed like mad".
Quan equates the tiger to prisoners. "Wild conditions are just conducive to breeding. Imagine being cooped up in a pen all day long. You wouldn't want to eat or breed either. Now that the animals can behave naturally, they are healthy and strong.
"There are no genetic problems with our cubs. They have learnt to hunt, and are finally behaving like tigers should."
She said the tigress Madonna is apparently fulfilling her role as a mother admirably.
This came as a pleasant surprise to Quan, who almost expected the cubs to die.
"Madonna abandoned her first litter, and they all died. So I was worried about this litter."
But Quan's worries were unnecessary.
Quan spoke of her emotions when she saw the cubs for the first time. After tempting Madonna away with food, the directors of the foundation sneaked in to take photos and check on the condition of the cubs. "I battled to stay calm," Quan said.
"The cubs gave me silent hisses to protest my intrusion ... They were just adorable and I felt so privileged to see them. All previous births were boys, so we were really praying for girls. We used clean towels to carefully part the legs of the first cub - a boy.
"My heart stopped beating... Now the second cub. I picked it up using a towel and saw, to my great relief and excitement, it was a baby girl. I felt like crying."