Wildlife Trade

What are the different subspecies of tigers?
Tigers (Panthera tigris) are divided into subspecies generally according to their geographic range. All tigers are native to Asia, and live in temperate regions, such as Siberia, and tropical regions, such as South and Southeast Asia. Once there were eight tiger subspecies: The Bali tiger (P. t. balica), the Bengal tiger (P. t. tigris, also called the Indian tiger), the Caspian tiger (P. t. virgata), the Indo-Chinese tiger (P.t. corbetti), the Javan tiger (P. t. sondaica), the Siberian tiger (P. t. altaica, also called the Manchurian or Amur tiger), the South China tiger (P. t. amoyensis, also called the Amoy tiger), and the Sumatran tiger (P. t. sumatrae). In just the last sixty years, the Bali, the Caspian, and the Javan tiger have all become extinct.

Is the tiger in danger of extinction?
All subspecies of tiger are currently threatened with extinction in the wild, there could be as few as 3, 200 tigers left in the wild. As many as 100,000 tigers roamed the forests, swamps, and tundra of Asia in the early part of the 20th century. Today, populations have been severely depleted by habitat loss and fragmentation, competition with humans for food, and by illegal trade.

Some tiger subspecies are more threatened than others. The South China tiger is by far the most endangered of all tigers, with only a few wild individuals left. The most populous of the tiger subspecies is the Bengal tiger.

What is the explanation for this drastic decline?
Tigers are "top predators." This means that they are at the top of the food chain, with no natural predators other than humans. Like other predators, including other big cats such as leopards, tigers require a large land area over which they will travel to find food. An ever-expanding human population has led to increased deforestation, expanded agriculture, and urbanization, resulting in the shrinking and fragmentation of tigers' habitat. People hunt the tigers' prey - which include wild cattle, pigs, and deer - leaving tigers with less food to eat. As tigers' habitat and food supplies have shrunk, the tiger populations have plummeted. Now, those wild tigers that remain are left extremely vulnerable to any further threat posed by illegal hunting.

Though tigers are often killed due to conflicts with humans and livestock, tigers are also hunted for the use of their body parts in traditional Asian medicines (TAM). There is also a significant trade in skins, teeth and claws. Tiger bones are used in TAM to treat such symptoms as joint pain and stiffness, muscular weakness, back pain, paralysis and muscular spasms. Tigers have been used for medicinal purposes in East Asian countries for centuries and a belief in their efficacy for treating health problems is deeply rooted in national tradition. The analgesic effect of tiger bone has been observed in laboratory animals with induced arthritis; however, many mammal bones have this effect, not just tiger bones.

What are the U.S. and international laws protecting tigers?
The trade in tigers and their parts is prohibited from commercial international trade by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international treaty that includes over 160 member countries. The U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) prohibits interstate commerce as well as import and export of tigers and tiger products. In 1994, the U.S. Congress passed the Rhino and Tiger Conservation Act, a specific measure to provide greater protection and resources for conservation of these species. In 1998, an amendment to this act called the Rhino and Tiger Product Labeling Act made it illegal to import, export, or sell products intended for "human consumption or application" that claimed to contain any substance derived from tigers. This amendment means that Customs and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials do not have to prove that a product labeled as containing a tiger derivative actually contains that substance. Virtually all countries where tigers are found have protective laws in place, although implementation and enforcement varies significantly from country to country. The tigers in zoos and circuses are almost all captive-bred, and movement of these animals for non-commercial purposes is generally legal.

If the tiger is protected, why do poaching and trade continue?
Tigers are killed for numerous reasons, often as a result of conflicts with humans or to prevent livestock predation. Frequently, tiger parts found in trade are a by-product of this illegal killing, and trade is not the initial motivation or driving force behind it.

However, tigers, as well as other big cats such as leopards, continue to be killed because their body parts can be sold for high prices by smugglers and medicinal traders, much like rhinos, bears, and other endangered species. Tiger pelts are considered quite valuable in some countries, and tiger bone commands high prices on the Asian medicinal wholesale market. An individual adult tiger yields between 13 and 24 pounds of dried bone, depending on its size, and can generate a handsome profit to a smuggler. Because poachers have such a strong incentive to kill tigers, and because the countries where tigers live have limited resources for guarding protected areas, illegal hunting of tigers is still common.

Even countries with strong enforcement of tiger protection laws fight a never-ending battle against poaching; for example, in December 1999 and January 2000, government officials in northern India near the border with Nepal seized the remains of 7 tigers from poachers. In 2001, an 18-month undercover investigation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service resulted in charges against members of a wildlife trading ring that bought and killed 14 tigers, as well as many other big cats, for the lucrative animal parts trade.

Where does most of the illegal trade occur?
Despite major tiger conservation campaigns, poaching continues in most of the tiger range states, including Russia, China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Indonesia. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 led to increased poaching of the Siberian or Amur tiger. Today, increased enforcement of anti-poaching laws has helped the population of this subspecies to stabilize; however, poaching continues. Officials in Russia estimate that between 20 and 30 tigers were poached each year in 1998 and 1999.

The death of a single tiger at the hands of poachers has much more impact than the loss of one individual might imply. If the tiger that was killed was a female with cubs, her cubs will likely die without their mother - and the female's potential for future breeding is lost. If a male is killed, his death can result in intensive competition for his territory among surviving males in the population, creating a years-long disruption in further breeding by those males.

As the popularity of TAM expands across the globe, so too does the potential for illegal trade in tiger bones. The principal tiger consumers are China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Canada, and the United States. All of these countries prohibit domestic trade in tiger products. Today, bans on even those products that claim to contain tiger derivatives have significantly reduced availability of tiger medicines in Europe, Canada, the United States, Taiwan, and South Korea. Japanese legislation passed in 1993 banned imports of tiger products, but until recently the sale of such products was still permitted, creating a loophole for smugglers. In January 2000, the Japanese government passed new legislation that added tiger bone, tiger reproductive organs, and products derived from these substances to the list of products whose sale may be regulated by the government.

What can I do to help stop the tiger trade?
Stopping the illegal tiger trade requires action on several fronts. At the 2002 Conference of the Parties to CITES, member nations approved a resolution calling for national bans on domestic trade of tigers and other Asian big cats, more effective border controls, increased funding for anti-poaching and conservation efforts, and public awareness campaigns to discourage consumption in user countries. CITES parties, including the United States, must take action on these measures to assist range states in clamping down on illegal commerce, and must urge non-member countries to join the Convention.

Greater education and awareness about tiger poaching and illegal trade is essential. In particular, we need to direct education campaigns towards those countries whose citizens are currently using large quantities of tiger bone and other parts. Unlike some wildlife medicinal products, tiger medicines are not used for life-threatening or acute medical conditions. Therefore, it should be possible to work with consuming countries to find substitute medicines and stop the illegal trade in tiger parts.

Even if you aren't a consumer of tiger bone medicine, you can help. As a tourist, do not buy tiger trinkets made from teeth and claws, tiger pelts, and stuffed heads, and where possible, try to report such sales to local and international authorities.