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“Tiger bone wine” is still being made and sold by some animal parks in China, say campaigners.

The Environmental Investigation Agency says staff at two parks offered to sell the drink, made from carcasses soaked in rice wine, to its researchers.

The trade in parts of the endangered species has been subject to an international ban since 1987, and has been outlawed in China since 1989. Despite global conservation efforts, tiger numbers continue to decline.

There are an estimated to be 3,500-7,500 tigers left in the wild, compared with roughly 100,000 at the start of the 20th Century.

The UK-based NGO said its investigators found that the wine, deemed to be a health tonic to treat conditions such as arthritis and rheumatism, was being openly advertised at the parks. Staff said the wine was made from tigers that had died after fighting with other big cats at the venues. One park produced what they said was a government permit that allowed the sale of the tiger-derived wine on the premises, but the EIA researchers said it was not possible to verify whether the permit was genuine.

The EIA said a senior worker, when questioned by its researchers, said that she was aware that the tigers were a protected species and trading of any part of the animals “in the open market” was prohibited. But the agency said that she went on to explain that the permit allowed “closed market” sales of the wine; in other words, it could be sold from the park’s premises.

Debbie Banks, head of the EIA’s tiger campaign, called on the Chinese authorities to close down the illegal trade. “We want other parks with similar tiger attractions to be investigated to see how widespread this tiger-bone wine-making practice is,” she said. “We also want the authorities to give a clear message to the business community that this illegal trade will not be tolerated.”

Conservationists estimate that tigers now only occupy just 7% of their historical range, primarily as a result of habitat loss, hunting and poaching.
They believe that there are just 2,500 breeding adults left in the wild and without more resources made available to protect the animals, the cats face an uncertain future.

Since the 1980s, a number of “tiger farms” have been set up in China. These establishments are believed to house about 5,000 captive tigers, possibly more than remain in the wild.

During last year’s high-level summit of the global Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), the Chinese delegation raised the possibility of ending its domestic ban in order to allow the use of farmed tiger parts.

They argued that this would prove to be the most sustainable option because it would satisfy the demand from traditional medicine practitioners without threatening the wild tiger population.

Although this approach was supported by some conservation groups, others warned that it would undermine efforts by the Chinese government to curb poaching.

They said that it would be cheaper to kill a wild tiger than to rear a captive one, and it would be very difficult to tell the difference between the two.

“Lifting the ban would increase demand and lead to a surge in poaching,” said Ms Banks. “It would be far too easy to launder their skins, bones and parts among those from legalised tiger farms. This would effectively declare an open season on wild tigers.”

Northern Sumatra: Non-governmental organizations have recently alledged that the police and military are  systematically involved in the illegal trade of endangered species in northern Sumatra.

They said that police and military officers were involved in the transportation of animals such as the Sumatran tiger and anteater found in protected forests in Riau, North Sumatra and Aceh, via Medan and on to other countries.

A spokesperson for the Non-governmental organizations – (the International Leuser Foundation, Flora Fauna International, Leuser Ecosystem Foundation, Conservation International and Sumatra Orangutan Conservation Program) – said that transporting the animals was impossible without escort by security authorities.

He mentioned the arrest in late May of an Army sergeant major in Tiga Binanga, Karo regency, while escorting a consignment of Sumatran tiger skins to Medan, believed to be poached from the Leuser National Park in Aceh.

“Investigating police said the tiger skins were to be supplied to a local trader in Tiga Binanga for Rp 13 million each,”  he said, but this was foiled by local police with help from the general public. He added that NGOs have detected the long-term involvement of security officers in the illegal trade. “But it has been very difficult to arrest them because they are powerful,” .

He said the Sumatran tiger was found in the Leuser National Park but the population has drastically fallen and that the seaports of Belawan and Tanjung Balai were believed to be used to take tiger skins and parts out of the country to the international market.

Fitri, a staff member of the Natural Resources Conservation Center, agreed and said there were many hidden tracks in Belawan and Tanjung Balai which could be used to bring the endangered tigers to Malaysia and Singapore.

The intensive poaching of endangered species in Sumatra is prompted by high demand in the international market, Fitri said, “And we are running short of staff to supervise the protected forests which have been their habitats.”

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has frequently reported on the prevalent poaching of the Sumatran tiger to the annual meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, representing key wildlife protection stakeholders, but the trade has persisted due to increased demand in Southeast Asia for skins and parts.

It is thought that at least 66 Sumatran tigers have been killed in the last two years.

The tiger trade is flourishing in countries like Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos. Local laws have been established to protect the animals but are not effectively enforced, the WWF said.

Over the past 100 years, tiger numbers have dwindled. At the start of the 20th century more than 100,000 wild tigers roamed the Earth. Now with poaching decimating their numbers and extensive logging destroying their habitat, fewer than 7,500 remain. Environmentalists fear that by the end of this century, no tigers will remain in the wild.

Kinokawa, Japan

A loss-making Japanese railway company is back on track thanks to the popularity of a stray cat.

Wearing a black cap and posing for photos with passengers, Tama the tabby is credited with boosting Wakayama Electric Railway’s revenue by 10%.

The firm had to axe all staff at Kishi station in western Japan two years ago.

But Tama stuck by her post and was rewarded with promotion to station manager. The pet mascot even has her own office, a former ticket booth.

The feline, who was born and raised at the station in the city of Kinokawa, Wakayama prefecture, is living proof of the Japanese belief that cats are good luck.

“She never complains, even though passengers touch her all over the place. She is an amazing cat. She has patience and charisma. She is the perfect station master,” said Yoshiko Yamaki, a spokeswoman for the rail company.

The nine-year-old – who receives cat food in lieu of a salary – won national stardom last year when the firm formally appointed her as “station master”.

Since then passengers have been gradually returning, recently rising 10% to about 2.1 million a year.

The cat has spawned a range of popular merchandise, including a picture book called: “Diary of Tama, the Station Master.”

Whipsnade Zoo, Bedfordshire UK

A sand sculpture showing a cheetah cat catching its prey (a gazelle)  has gone on show at a zoo with a cheetah collection.

The large display at Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire was created by Yorkshire sculptor Jamie Wardley with sand given free of charge by a local quarry.

On the back of the two-sided artwork a female cheetah is shown with her cubs.

Sand and ice sculptor Mr Wardley, from Bradford, has created works of art at venues around the world but this is his first display in a zoo.

It has been reported this week that the world’s fastest land animal suffers in captivity from AA amyloidosis, a disease of misshapen proteins somewhat like BSE. Scientists suggest that cheetahs may contract the disease by eating each other’s faecal matter – which contains amyloid proteins – perhaps when they are grooming.

14 tiger cubs have been spotted in a reserve in north-western India, forestry officials say.
The sightings are a rare piece of good news in the fight to halt the steep decline in tiger numbers in India.
Forestry officials in Ranthambhore National Park in Rajasthan say the cubs are from several mothers and have been seen regularly in recent months.
Ranthambore had just 32 tigers at the last count. India is thought to have 1,500 tigers, half the world’s total.
But conservationists say they face extinction unless urgent action is taken to save them.
Ranthambore has seen tiger numbers fall from 46 in 2004.
The park authorities are currently conducting a new tiger census and up-to-date figures – which will include the new cubs – are expected in June.

RS Shekhawat, deputy field director at Ranthambore, said the sightings of the cubs was “good news for all of us”.

“Credit goes to both governments – state and federal, the forest authorities and also local people for this positive development,” he told the BBC.
Ranthambore covers 392 sq.km. of dry deciduous forests sprawling over undulating terrain. The BBC’s Narayan Bareth in Jaipur says forest officials want more space for the tigers.
“We are contemplating expanding the habitat area for the tiger population because the population is on the rise,” Mr Shekhawat said.
Nearly 100 villages surround the park, and the more the tiger population grows the more they are likely to come into conflict with humans.
The Wildlife Trust of India’s state co-ordinator, Mahendra Kachhawa, urged the authorities to tighten security at the park. In 2005 it was reported that tigers had been wiped out at another park in Rajasthan, the Sariska sanctuary. That prompted the setting up of a tiger taskforce in India.

Wildlife experts welcomed the latest news, saying they also had information about sightings of tiger cubs in other reserves.

Big cats living in Kenya’s Maasai Mara game reserve are being threatened by a collapse in revenues from wildlife tourism, it has been claimed.

The Mara Conservancy says tourists have stayed away since the violence which followed last year’s disputed election.

The group, which manages a 510 sq km area called the Mara Triangle, can no longer pay pastoralists compensation for cattle killed by lions or leopards.

This could force local people to kill the cats in order to protect livestock.

William Deed, from the Mara Conservancy, said that it was facing a shortfall of $50,000 per month.

The non-profit organisation relies on a percentage of park entrance fees paid by tourists.

Since it was founded in 2001, and the compensation scheme established, the number of lions in the reserve has doubled to 80.

But now the fund has been suspended, some Maasai have threatened to resume hunting the lions and leopards which kill their cows, goats and sheep.

“We have now had several close calls with locals hunting lions and leopards in return for the cattle that have been killed by these predators,” said Mr Deed.

“Previously, the cattle compensation scheme we had in place would help placate such situations, however with no funding to pay for such a scheme the local communities are no longer seeing the benefits of living so closely with the wildlife.”

He said the current situation was leading to strained relations with local communities.

The Mara Conservancy has met with local elders, but each time one of their animals is killed with no money for compensation, the “tension mounts”, Mr Deed explained.

“It may be only a matter of time until rangers won’t be so lucky in stopping cattle owners from taking their own measures to protect cattle,” he added.

Cuts in electricity are also making the job of rangers increasingly dangerous. Part of their job involves catching armed cattle rustlers who often make their escape through the Mara Triangle.

But the area now lacks power for 11 hours out of every 24, meaning that communications are often down between the main station and patrol teams.

The dire funding situation has also forced the organisation to stop night patrols.

Poachers were already profiting from the situation, said Mr Deed: groups of men had been seen using torches to hunt Thomson Gazelles at night.

Last month, the rangers have caught five poachers, including three men who killed a hippo for its meat.

Even though the worst of the violence in Kenya has subsided, Mr Deed said it would take time for the tourist trade to pick up again.

For now, he explained, the organisation was operating only on small donations from individuals across the world.

Scottish vet, Jane Harley has is urging owners to neuter and vaccinate their cats in an attempt to help protect the countries wildcat population.

Jane said the species was at risk from contracting highly contagious conditions. Her warning came ahead of a major conference on wildcats in Aviemore. It has been estimated that there are 400 wildcats, but their survival has been threatened by interbreeding with domesticated cats and diseases they could be carrying. Ms Harley said: “I think that most people acknowledge that interbreeding is the biggest risk to wildcats, but many won’t have considered the serious risk to wildcats from diseases, which can be prevalent in feral cats.

“The feline leukaemia virus, for example, is a highly contagious cat disease which can be vaccinated against.

“For those domestic cat owners who would like to play their part in protecting the wildcat, my advice is to have their pet cats neutered and ensure that all vaccinations are up-to-date.”

A rare North Chinese leopard that is thought to be the only one in the UK is settling into its new home in Kent, according to his keepers.

Tairi has spent the last six days getting used to his new surroundings at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Smarden, Ashford.

It is hoped the 22-month-old leopard, who was reared in captivity in Paris, will mate once he turns four.

Chief executive Mark Edgerley said his appetite was bigger than they expected.

He said it was believed that there were just 2,500 North Chinese leopards in the wild and about 100 in captivity.

‘Very fiery’

And according to the breed’s stud book keeper, the leopard is the only one of its kind currently in the UK.

Mr Edgerley said: “It will take him a while to settle in here, moving is very unsettling for leopards and they are a very shy species.

“His appetite is actually bigger than I would have expected, normally they don’t eat for the first ten days or so after moving.”

The centre is an active partner in the European Endangered Species Breeding Programmes (EEP).

Its cats currently include snow leopards, Sumatran tigers, Amur leopards and an ocelot.

The North Chinese leopard was called Tairi after the French Polynesian god of thunder.

Mr Edgerley said: “Already we can see that he is very fiery, which is what we like. We want our cats to be as wild as possible, we don’t want them to be timid.”

It was reported this week that a lynx has appeared in the Italian Alps for the first time in over a century

Authorities in Italy’s South Tyrol region say the lynx, which crossed the mountains from Switzerland, does not pose a threat to livestock in the area.

The lynx was fitted with a signalling collar after being captured in Switzerland in February.

Lynx were wiped out by hunters and farmers in the region in the early 20th Century. They were reintroduced in Switzerland in the 1970s.

On Friday the South Tyrol authorities said the lynx spotted in the area had wandered through the Pejo Valley and had stopped in the Deutschnonsberg area of South Tyrol.

The WWF conservation organisation says there are about 100 lynx in Switzerland, in two main areas: the northwestern Alps, which includes Interlaken, and the Jura Mountains near Lake Geneva.

Lynx are solitary hunters, inhabiting high-altitude forests and preying on small mammals such as hares, foxes and small deer as well as fish.

WWF Italy spokesman Riccardo Nigro told the BBC News website that lynx “are fully protected in Italy”. But he said carnivores such as bear, lynx and wolves could be a risk in some places because alpine communities had forgotten simple preventive measures such as low-voltage fences and dogs trained to defend cattle.

An Italian programme to reintroduce bears to the Alps suffered a setback when one – nicknamed Bruno – ventured into Austria and Germany and preyed on local livestock. Bruno dodged Bavarian hunters for weeks before being shot dead in June 2006.