- John Varty
John Varty (JV) is a South African conservationist and filmmaker who specializes in Big Cats. JV established Tiger Canyons near the town of Philippolis on the Van der Kloof Lake in the Karoo of South Africa as an experiment to create a free-ranging, self-sustaining tiger population outside Asia. From this population, third and fourth generations of tigers can be returned to Asia into parks that meet a set of criteria which give the tigers a chance of surviving in Asia. He successfully introduced a lion cub into a tiger litter to test if a tigress would adopt a cub which is not their own. This way genetic diversity can be increased in populations of wild tigers where inbreeding is occurring. http://www.jvbigcats.co.za
JV and his brother Dave started what is now the Famous Londolozi Game Reserve of which Nelson Mandela said: “During my long walk to freedom, I had the rare privilege to visit Londolozi. There I saw people of all races living in harmony amidst the beauty that mother nature offers. There I saw a living lion in the wild. Londolozi represents a model of the dream I cherish for the future of nature preservation in our country”. John Varty also made wildlife films. As part of his filming projects, he introduced cheetah, a lioness, and two leopards to the wild. He came to realize these magnificent creatures are no less complex and intelligent than we are. JV believed that through film he could make people concerned about habitat destruction which was resulting in more and more species dying out every day. “I wonder if my children will ever fly in the dust of 1 500 elephants, or half a million wildebeest migrating from the Serengeti or see a jaguar swimming across an Amazonian river. I hope so." His films have achieved top ratings on US TV channels and have been seen by millions of people and, he hopes, have resulted in a greater reverence for our planet and all living things. He has won many top documentary honors such as the New York Gold Award, the Film Festival of Montana Best Independent Program and American Cable TV's Ace Award. Major international customers include Walt Disney, The Discovery Channel, Time Life, Reader's Digest and Turner Original Programs (TOP).
Filmography
ee also
External links
* [http://www.jvbigcats.co.za John Varty's website]
* [http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tigers/trainers/trainers_02.html Discovery Channel profile]
* [http://www.londolozi.co.za Londolozi Private Reserve official website]
* [http://travel.guardian.co.uk/article/2002/jun/15/hotels.guardiansaturdaytravelsection Guardian article on Londolozi and Mandela]
* [http://www.nomadtours.co.za/article_2006-6-2_5.html Carte Blanche (South African TV program) interviewing Li Quan and John Varty over the controversy and the lawsuit]
* [http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/Week-of-Mon-20030901/005990.html Press release regarding the film controversy and claiming fraud]
* [http://www.5050.co.za/inserts.asp?ID=5146 SABC program interviewing Li Quan and Gus Mills regarding the conservation issues]
* [http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tigers/voices/voices.html Discovery Channel website quoting critics of the tiger project]
* [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/03/0302_050302_tiger_africa.html National Geographic article documenting Save China's Tiger project]
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