Local Usage of Tiger Parts and Its Role in Tiger Killing in the Bangladesh Sundarbans

Saif, Samia; Russell, Aal M.; Nodie, Sabiha I.; Inskip, Chloe; Lahann, Petra; Barlow, Adam; Barlow, Christina Greenwood; Islam, Md. Anwarul; MacMillan, Douglas C.

doi:10.1080/10871209.2015.1107786

Cited by 20 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…In 2012 the new Wildlife (Preservation & Protection) Act of Bangladesh introduced tougher punishments for tiger killing (7 years imprisonment); however, this law is not sufficient to combat poaching without effective enforcement measures (Pratt et al, 2004). The lucrative nature of the tiger trade means that poachers and their clients can hire experienced lawyers to help them evade punishment, and there are numerous examples of poachers being acquitted during the legal process and avoiding punishment (Saif et al, 2016). To combat this situation we suggest that conservation NGOs could hire specialist prosecuting lawyers to act against poachers, an approach that has been used successfully elsewhere (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During 2010–2015 there was an increase in the number of tiger skins and skeletons seized in Bangladesh. Most of the skins lacked bullet marks or other external wounds, suggesting that the tigers were poisoned (Saif et al, 2016). Poisoning is the trademark of professional poaching gangs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Poaching has been identified as a high-priority threat to the species in the region (Aziz et al, 2013) but although studies have explored tiger-killing behaviour in villages, human–tiger conflict and the link between local usage of tiger parts and tiger killing (Khan, 2009; Barlow et al, 2013; Inskip et al, 2013, 2014; Saif et al, 2016), there has been no research on the range of people involved, their motives and methods, and their links to the commercial trade. Our aim is to establish who is killing tigers, why and how, with a view to designing more effective conservation interventions that complement existing law-enforcement efforts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Who is killing the tiger Panthera tigris and why?

Saif

Rahman

MacMillan

2016

Oryx

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We investigated the range of people involved in killing tigers Panthera tigris in the Bangladesh Sundarbans, their motives and methods, and their links to the commercial trade. Using snowball sampling we conducted  qualitative interviews with local people. We identified five categories (village residents, poachers, shikaris, trappers and pirates), each with different motives, methods and networks. Village residents kill tigers predominantly for safety, whereas others kill in the forest professionally or opportunistically. Poachers kill tigers for money, but for others the motives are more complex. The motives of local hunters are multifaceted, encompassing excitement, profit, and esteem and status arising from providing tiger parts for local medicine. Pirates kill tigers for profit and safety but also as a protection service to the community. The emerging international trade in tiger bones, introduced to the area by non-local Bangladeshi traders, provides opportunities to sell tiger parts in the commercial trade and is a motive for tiger killing across all groups.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Who is killing the tiger Panthera tigris and why?

Saif

Rahman

MacMillan

2016

Oryx

Self Cite

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“…International and national responses to reduce IWU have largely focused on strengthening law enforcement efforts and reducing international consumer demand for illegally sourced wildlife (Gandiwa et al 2013). However, the overlap between domestic and international we found suggests that much more emphasis should be placed on the role of rural communities to determine the motivations, drivers, dynamics, and responses to IWU (Gray et al 2015;Roe 2015;Saif et al 2015).…”

Section: Implications For Conservationmentioning

confidence: 98%

Using spatial patterns in illegal wildlife uses to reveal connections between subsistence hunting and trade

Sánchez-Mercado

Asmüssen

Rodríguez-Clark

et al. 2016

Conservation Biology

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Although most often considered independently, subsistence hunting, domestic trade, and international trade as components of illegal wildlife use (IWU) may be spatially correlated. Understanding how and where subsistence and commercial uses may co-occur has important implications for the design and implementation of effective conservation actions. We analyzed patterns in the joint geographical distribution of illegal commercial and subsistence use of multiple wildlife species in Venezuela and evaluated whether available data were sufficient to provide accurate estimates of the magnitude, scope, and detectability of IWU. We compiled records of illegal subsistence hunting and trade from several sources and fitted a random-forest classification model to predict the spatial distribution of IWUs. From 1969 to 2014, 404 species and 8,340,921 specimens were involved in IWU, for a mean extraction rate of 185,354 individuals/year. Birds were the most speciose group involved (248 spp.), but reptiles had the highest extraction rates (126,414 individuals/year vs. 3,133 individuals/year for birds). Eighty-eight percent of international trade records spatially overlapped with domestic trade, especially in the north and along the coast but also in western inland areas. The distribution of domestic trade was broadly distributed along roads, suggesting that domestic trade does not depend on large markets in cities. Seventeen percent of domestic trade records overlapped with subsistence hunting, but the spatial distribution of this overlap covered a much larger area than between commercial uses. Domestic trade seems to respond to demand from rural more than urban communities. Our approach will be useful for understanding how IWU works at national scales in other parts of the world.

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“…Tiger parts, especially skins, teeth, meat, and bones, are in trade as decorations, jewelry, luxury food, and traditional medicine (Stoner 2014;Loginov & Loginova 2017). Much of the trade in tiger and lion body parts is driven by Chinese demand (Wong 2015) and, to a lesser degree, demand in other Asian countries (Nijman & Shepherd 2015;Saif et al 2016). For instance, individual wild cats or their parts (teeth and claws) accounted for 31% of all mammal seizures in airports worldwide; China was the most recorded destination (Center for Advanced Defense Studies 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illegal trade in wild cats and its link to Chinese‐led development in Central and South America

Morcatty

Macedo²,

Nekaris

et al. 2020

Conservation Biology

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Seizures of hundreds of jaguar heads and canines in Central and South America from 2014 to 2018 resulted in worldwide media coverage suggesting that wildlife traffickers are trading jaguar body parts as substitutes for tiger parts to satisfy the demand for traditional Asian medicine. We compiled a data set of >1000 seized wild cats (jaguar [Panthera onca], puma [Puma concolor], and ocelot [Leopardus pardalis]) from 19 Central and South American countries and China. We ran generalized additive mixed models to detect trends in wild-cat seizures from 2012 to 2018 and assess the effects of socioeconomic factors of source countries and between those countries and China on the number of wild cats seized. Jaguar seizures increased over time, and most of the seized jaguar pieces were canines (1991 of 2117). Around 34% (32 of 93) of the jaguar-part seizure reports were linked with China, and these seizures contained 14-fold more individuals than those intended for domestic markets. Source countries with relatively high levels of corruption and Chinese private investment and low income per capita had 10-50 times more jaguar seizures than the remaining sampled countries. The number of Chinese residents in Central and South America was not significantly related to the number of jaguars seized. No socioeconomic factors influenced the seizures of puma and ocelots. Legal market chains may provide structure for the illegal chain; thus, the influx of illegal jaguar products is potentially a side effect of the economic partnership between Central and South American countries and China. Poverty and high levels of corruption in the source countries may motivate local people to engage in illegal activities and contribute to the growth of this trade. Supply-side interventions to curb this threat to Neotropical wild cats may include improved training for officials and promotion of governance and the value of protecting these animals to local people.

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Local Usage of Tiger Parts and Its Role in Tiger Killing in the Bangladesh Sundarbans

Cited by 20 publications

References 24 publications

Who is killing the tiger Panthera tigris and why?

Who is killing the tiger Panthera tigris and why?

Using spatial patterns in illegal wildlife uses to reveal connections between subsistence hunting and trade

Illegal trade in wild cats and its link to Chinese‐led development in Central and South America

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