New Threat faces Wild Tiger Populations from Re-Opening of Trade in Tiger Parts

Science Daily – The Hague — In the cover story of this months BioScience journal, leading tiger experts warn that if tigers are to survive, governments must stop all trade in tiger products from wild and captive-bred sources, as well as ramp up efforts to conserve the species and their habitats. The paper, “The Fate of Wild Tigers,” describes the wild tigers population decline as “catastrophic” and urges international cooperation to ensure the animals continued existence in the wild.

Habitat loss and intense poaching of tigers and their prey, combined with inadequate government efforts to maintain tiger populations, have resulted in a dramatic reduction in tiger numbers. These big cats now occupy just 7 percent of their historical range, according to the BioScience paper. And the possibility that China could reopen trade in parts harvested from farmed tigers represents a new threat, the authors say.
ScienceDaily: Viable Tiger Populations, Tiger Trade Incompatible

Four decades ago, approximately 4,000 South China tigers lived in the wild. Today there are only about 30. An additional 64 live in 19 zoos in China.

The tigers are in more danger of extinction than China’s most famous animal, the giant panda, according to Cai Qinhui, chief veterinarian of Guangzhou Zoo in southern China’s Guangdong Province. China’s Tigers.

Li Quan, a native of Beijing, former head of Gucci’s worldwide licensing business, founded –>Save China’s Tigers, in 2000. Photos of Li Quan, and her Chinese Tigers in South Africa

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Fascinating Photos from Save China’s Tigers website. How interesting, these Chinese tigers actually have slanted eyes. Or am I imagining it?

René O’Deay

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