The attempt to teach zoo-born tigers to live on their own in the wild, and to do so in Africa, is opposed by some tiger conservationists. Here are a few voices from others in the conservation community. Those comments are followed by responses from Dave Salmoni of this project:

Gus Mills, head of South Africa's Endangered Wildlife Trust Carnivore Conservation Group. (Gus and his organization have requested that we note unequivocally that they "do not in any way support this tiger project.")

"The big concern I have over the project … is they are planning to release into the wild a species that is exotic, that doesn't occur in that ecosystem. And I think as a basic principle in conservation, we should only conserve animals that are indigenous to the area. …

"From a principle basis it is just wrong to set aside a large area and conserve it with an exotic species. Why don't you also then bring in kangaroos and some bears and you could have a real nice mix that ... some people might think is attractive? But certainly from a conservation point of view it doesn't have any value. Because conservation is really about conserving animals in their natural ecosystem.

"I think the chances of tigers going extinct in the wild in the next 50 years are really quite small. There's a lot of attention, a lot of conservation work being done in Asia on tigers. And although there are still big problems … problems are being tackled and in some areas they're being successfully addressed."

Dave Salmoni response:
"The unfortunate reality is that tiger conservation in Asia is in a disturbing state. The problems facing the tiger are ones that cannot be overcome at a whim. We would be acting unethically if we started introducing tigers into an area that has not yet solved its conflicts with the tiger. Therefore, a project like this needs to take seed in another country. Once a working model for tiger conservation is established it is then possible to motivate decision makers to begin to start rectifying the problems the tiger faces.