Conservationists concerned about demand for lion bones
Legal sales may trigger even more poaching in wild
JOHANNESBURG — Wildlife traffickers in a major African park have been offering rewards for a full lion carcass, raising concerns that poachers are increasingly targeting a vulnerable species because of demand in some Asian countries for lion bones used in traditional medicine.
The report from Mozambique’s Niassa National Reserve comes amid debate about whether the legal, annual export of bones from hundreds of captive-bred lions in South Africa to China and Southeast Asia could spur the market, possibly leading to the illegal killing of wild lions for their bones as well. African lion bones are a relatively recent substitute in tonics for the bones of Asian tigers, which have been depleted by poachers.
There have been “multiplying anecdotal reports of lions harvested for body parts” along with “increasing examples of whole skeletons being taken,” said Paul Funston, senior lion program director for the Panthera conservation group. He said he believes the phenomenon is linked to increased Chinese demand rather than the longtime use of lion parts in some traditional African cultures.
“It seems to start with teeth and claws, which probably mainly have trinket value, and migrates to bones and carcasses once a market is established,” Funston said.
Lions face other threats, including human encroachment on habitats and the poaching of antelopes and other animals for food, which deprives the predators of prey. The number of African lions in the wild has dropped by more than 40 percent to about 20,000 in the past two decades, according to estimates.
Recent South African cases “have the hallmark of domestic consumption for the local traditional medicine trade,” said Vivienne Williams, a researcher at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and the lead author on a 2015 lion bone study. Sometimes, lion teeth and claws are used as talismans and lion paw bones feature in healers’ divination sets, she said.
South Africa has proposed a 2017 export quota of 800 skeletons of captivebred lions, many of which are killed by paying clients in a practice described as “canned hunting.”
South Africa’s environmental affairs department raised a concern that runs counter to that of some conservationists, saying a ban on the trade in captivebred lion bones could trigger more poaching.
Richard Thomas, spokesman for TRAFFIC, a conservation group, said the legal industry must be closely monitored.
“We don’t fully understand the dynamics of the lion bone trade, and while it may not currently be having a perceived impact on wild lions in South Africa, we simply don’t know whether that’ll be the case there in the future or whether it’s presently the case elsewhere in the continent,” he said.