‘Skullduggery’: Lions Align and Their Mandibles Rock!

Abstract

South Africa has legally exported substantial quantities of lion bones to Southeast Asia and China since 2008, apparently as part of the multinational trade substituting bones and body parts of other large cats for those of the tiger in wine and other health tonics. The legal sale of lion bones may mask an illegal trade, the size of which is only partially known. An observed component of the illegal trade is that quantities of skeletons are sometimes declared falsely/fraudulently on CITES export permits. Furthermore, there are emerging concerns that bones from tigers reared in captivity in South Africa and elsewhere are being laundered as lion bones using CITES Appendix II permits. There is therefore a need for tools to monitor the trade in lion body parts and to distinguish between lions and tigers. Our research indicates that it is possible to use skeletons, skulls and cranial sutures to detect misdeclarations in the lion bone trade. It is also possible to use the average mass of a lion skeleton to corroborate the numbers of skeletons declared on CITES permits, relative to the weight of the consolidated consignments stated on the air waybills. When the mass of consolidated consignments of skeletons destined for export was regressed against the number of skeletons in that consignment, there was a strong correlation between the variables (r2 = 0.992) that can be used as a predictor of the accuracy of a declaration on a CITES permit. Additionally, the skulls of lions and tigers differ: two cranial sutures of lions align and their mandibles rock when placed on a flat surface, whereas the cranial sutures of tigers are not aligned and their mandibles rest naturally on two contact points. These two morphological differences between the skulls of tigers and lions are easy to observe at a glance and provide a method for distinguishing between the species if illegal trade in the bones is suspected and the skulls are present. These identifications should ideally be confirmed by a DNA test to provide rigorous evidence to prosecute offenders violating CITES regulations.

A roaring trade? The legal trade in Panthera leo bones from Africa to East-Southeast Asia

“…However, there is AWB evidence for a 116 kg consignment of lion bones being exported from Uganda to Laos in 2016 (±10–12 SKE, using [6]) [V.L. Williams, pers.…”

“…Because of prevailing uncertainty in the industry, the surge was partly indicative of the regular availability of skeletons due to farms selling available bones monthly to South African traders rather than stockpiling them to the end of the year (which also means that bones are likely to be wetter, and the average skeleton mass heavier, than estimated by Williams et al [6]). The most evident increase was in the last quarter of 2016 following the October 2016 outcome of CoP17 that a quota on bone exports was to be implemented in 2017.…”

“…1573 individual bones declared to weigh 107.5kg was calculated to be equivalent to ±11 SKE following Williams et al [6]). It was by these means that some anomalous permit declarations were identified and corrected for, such as 947kg of bones being listed as 50 SKE instead of ±100 SKE (see Williams et al [6]).…”

“…1573 individual bones declared to weigh 107.5kg was calculated to be equivalent to ±11 SKE following Williams et al [6]). It was by these means that some anomalous permit declarations were identified and corrected for, such as 947kg of bones being listed as 50 SKE instead of ±100 SKE (see Williams et al [6]). The biggest error detected was for ‘2910 SKE’ and ‘14 SKE’ destined for Thailand in 2013; on re-examination of the original provincial record, the permit entry was for ‘2910 bones from 14 skeletons’ –hence this record was corrected in our analyses to reflect 14 SKE only.…”

“…The first investigation was an assessment of the South African lion bone trade for the period 2008–2011 [2,6,7], and the second a pan-African stakeholder survey in 2014–2015 to record the then prevailing knowledge on the utilisation and trade of lion body parts (including bones) across current and former range states [8]. In the first investigation we concluded that skeletons from South Africa were typically a so-called ‘by-product’ of the trophy hunting industry that originated from captive-produced lions; and, despite there being no cultural history of consuming lion parts in Asia, the emergence and persistence of the South African–Asian lion bone trade is inextricably linked to the market for tiger products (and other large felids) [2].…”