IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Williams, V.; Newton, D.; Loveridge, A.; Macdonald, D. | |
| Bones of Contention. An assessment of the South African trade in African lion Panthera leo bones and other body parts | |
| 2015 Full Book | |
In the 1990s, images of Tigers _Panthera tigris_ on some manufactured Chinese medicines were replaced with Lions _Panthera leo_, leading to suspicions that parts from Tigers were being substituted with Lions. In 2005, evidence emerged that African Lion bones were indeed being substituted for Tiger in "bone strengthening wine", thus confirming the presence of Lion derivatives in "tiger" products. "Anger over lion bones sales" was the first South African newspaper headline in December 2009 publicly to proclaim the existence of a legal trade in African Lion bones to supply the substitute "tiger bone" market in East-Southeast Asia. The story generated widespread outrage when it emerged that a CITES(Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) permit had been issued to a local Lion breeder to export the skeletons - however, unbeknownst to the public was that permits to export Lion bones had been issued a year earlier in 2008. The sharp increase in the export of Lion skeletons from South Africa to Southeast Asia (especially Lao PDR and Viet Nam) from 2008 led to concerns that bones from wild Lions were being sold into the Traditional Asian Medicine (TAM) trade and thus negatively affecting vulnerable wild Lion populations. Accordingly, it became necessary to investigate the trade in Lion bones to: (1) examine the extent to which bones were available through legitimate and illegitimate sources within South Africa; (2) determine the source of the bones and parts (wild or captive bred); and (3) assess the potential impacts on wild populations. The Lion bone trade is a contentious and complex conservation issue spanning continents and cultures and a diverse array of role-players. A critical question that emerged during the research was: what events (if any) drove the demand for Lion bones in East-Southeast Asia? When examining the timelines in the Tiger and Lion trades, it appears as if measures adopted to protect Tigers and Asian big cats (especially in 2002 and 2006/2007) was inadvertently one factor that catalysed a chain reaction of interlinking and unexpected events that resulted in a shift from the traditional use of Tiger bones and products in TAM, to including the parts of other Asian big cats (such as leopards), and eventually the bones of Asiatic and then African Lions. Furthermore, we speculate whether rhino poaching worsened after representatives of a Laotian exportimport company, known for its involvement in wildlife trade and the illicit trade in rhino horn, visited South Africa to purchase lion bones from game farmers c.2008. Thus, are the rhino-lion-tiger trades interlinked, and did measures intended to protect a charismatic species in Asia have unintended consequences for other species on a different continent? This is an issue worthy of further debate to avoid similar knock-on effects in the future. |
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