Abstract:During March 2005 to February 2006, we conducted behavioral observations on 9 South China Tigers (5♀, 4♂) in Meihuashan South China Tiger Breeding and Re-wilding Research Center, Fujian Province. Tigers were grouped by age and observed for more than 400 hours. We applied all-occurrence and focal-animal sampling methods to study their time budgets and daily rhythms in semi-captive circumstances. We found that daily behaviors were significantly different among the breeding group, the juvenile group and the cub group. The time budget study showed that, there were no statistical inter-group relationships in moving, resting and feeding behaviors, however, there were differences in observed social, playing and other behaviors. Daily rhythm analysis showed movement behaviors usually co-occurred with social and feeding behaviors, especially in the breeding group. However, results also showed that stereotypic behavior makes up a large proportion of breeders′ movement behaviors. We observed limited social behaviors in cub and juvenile groups during time periods of peak behavior for the breeding group, which provides evidence for an age hierarchy. We found that the occurrence of feeding behaviors was largely controlled by humans. During feeding time the cub group reaches the peak of their playing behavior, often exhibiting more play behavior when compared to feeding behavior. The daily rhythm curves were generally smooth in the breeding group, while in juveniles and cubs there were fluctuations. Results showed that the semi-captive circumstances allowed recovery of some important behaviors that are also observed in wild tigers, however, the human interference and spatial limitations could inhibit the re-wilding of this sub-species.