Siberian tigers die at China zoo

Michael Bristow, BBC News 12 Mar 10;

Eleven rare Siberian tigers have died over the last three months at a zoo in north-eastern China.

The local authorities believe that a lack of food contributed to their deaths, according to media reports.

The news is bound to raise concerns about the treatment of captive tigers in China, which is this year celebrating the year of the tiger.

China has only about 50 tigers left in the wild, but it has about 5,000 in captivity.

The tigers died at the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in Liaoning Province. That fact was confirmed by a worker at the zoo.

But there are discrepancies about how they died.

A local wildlife protection official, Liu Xiaoqiang, is reported to have said that malnutrition was one cause.

The tigers were apparently fed cheap chicken bones.

Mr Liu also said that the tigers had been kept in very small cages, restricting their movement and lowering their resistance to disease.

A manager at the zoo, which is currently closed, said the animals simply died of various diseases.

But however the tigers died, their deaths will inevitably raise questions about how the animals are treated in China.

Animal campaign groups say there is simply not enough protection for tigers held in the country's zoos and farms.

A spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Beijing said: "[The government has] given too many credentials to groups that do not have the capability of taking care of these animals."

Tiger trade

In China there is also still a trade in tiger parts, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.

They are used to treat rheumatism and to strengthen bones.

The BBC recently found that the Siberia Tiger Park, based in Heilongjiang Province in the northeast of China, is selling a "tiger bone wine" that contains three small tiger bones.

These issues have been discussed for some time, both inside and outside China, but they are being given extra prominence this year - because this year is the year of the tiger.

China investigating zoo over dead tigers
Yahoo News 15 Mar 10;

BEIJING (AFP) – Authorities are investigating a Chinese zoo where three dozen animals including 13 rare Siberian tigers died recently, amid charges it was harvesting their parts, state media said Monday.

The probe of the zoo in the northeastern city of Shenyang will look at whether the animal parts were being used as ingredients in Chinese medicine and other products, Xinhua news agency said.

China banned the international trade in tiger bones and related products in 1993, and is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which also bars such trade.

But such transactions exist as many tiger parts, such as penises and bones, are commonly believed to increase sexual potency or cure certain illnesses.

Xinhua quoted a manager at the Shenyang Forest Wildlife Zoo as saying that the carcasses of the dead tigers, 11 of which starved to death and two of which were shot after mauling a worker, have been cut up and put in cold storage.

But another unnamed zoo worker said the bones had been used to make tiger-bone liquor that was used to "serve important guests".

The deaths, which came to light as China celebrates the Lunar Year of the Tiger, have been blamed on a combination of inadequate funding, an unusually cold winter and poor general conditions at the facility, the China Daily said.

Zoo workers fed the tigers cheap chicken bones in recent months as funding dried up. On Sunday, the Shenyang government announced that it had allocated one million dollars to save surviving animals and fund the zoo.

Besides the tigers, 22 other animals have died, including rare species that are protected in China, among them a red-crowned crane, four stump-tailed macaques, and one brown bear.

The Shenyang government has a 15 percent share in the zoo, which is mainly privately owned.

China says it has nearly 6,000 tigers in captivity, but just 50 to 60 are left in the wild, including about 20 wild Siberian tigers.

In the 1980s, China set up tiger farms to try to preserve the big cats, intending to release some into the wild. But conservation groups say the farms are used to harvest ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine.

China's Shenyang Zoo closed after tigers starve to death
Employee accuses bosses of making drink from bones of endangered animal
Clifford Coonan The Independent 18 Mar 10;

It is the Chinese Year of the Tiger but it has been far from auspicious. China's Shenyang Zoo has closed after 11 Siberian tigers died of starvation or were shot this year amid murky tales of body parts being used for traditional medicinal remedies.

The government has ordered an inquiry into the deaths of the rare Siberian tigers, of which there are only an estimated 300 left in the wild, 50 of them in China. But what has already played out before an enraged Chinese audience is a story of terrible neglect and poorly financed zoos.

The 11 tigers died after they were fed nothing but chicken bones at Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo, according to Chinese media reports this week. Another three listless big cats are shedding fur and have lost their appetites, the Xinhua news agency reported. A further two were shot dead after mauling a zoo worker in November 2009. The tigers are not the only victims of a cash crisis at the mainly privately owned zoological park. Twenty-six animals from 15 species have died this year, including four camels, a lion, a brown bear and a Mongolian horse. In all, the number of animals in the zoo has dropped by half in a decade, according to Xinhua.

Rumours swirled immediately that the tigers had been killed for their bones, which are prized in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Every year there are widespread illegal sales of tiger bones, penises and other parts because many believe that tiger parts can increase potency or cure diseases. A zoo worker, quoted by Xinhua, said the remains of the dead animal were used to make tiger-bone liquor that "was used to serve important guests".

But the zoo's managers denied anything untoward had happened and had allowed in experts to carry out tests and report the results to the authorities. "The tiger meat, skins and bones are kept in storage freezers," said Wu Xi, manager of the zoo. Officials ordered the zoo to close pending the result of an investigation, according to China's Global Times.

China banned the harvesting of tiger bones in 1993 and mentions of them were deleted from traditional medicine dictionaries. But tiger parts remain highly prized as an exceptional medical resource – tiger urine is used to treat eye infections, for example, and bones to treat rheumatism.

More than 5,000 tigers are held captive on farms and wildlife parks across China and there is an ongoing argument about allowing their bones to be used on a commercial basis.

Tigers are one of the most threatened large beasts on the planet, having slipped in numbers from over 100,000 in the early part of the last century to less than 3,200 remaining in the wild. Conservationists say they continue to be poached for their skins, and almost every part of a tiger's body can be used for decorative or traditional medicinal purposes. Tigers now survive in tiny areas and their plight is one of the main topics being discussed by conservationists at a meeting in Doha of signatories to the 200-member Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (Cites). China signed the pact in 1981.

"Although the tiger has been prized throughout history, and is a symbol of incredible importance in many cultures and religions, it is now literally on the verge of extinction," said Cites secretary general Willem Wijnstekers in a statement this week.

"2010 is the Chinese Year of the Tiger and the International Year of Biodiversity; this must be the year in which we reverse the trend. If we don't, it will be to our everlasting shame," he said.

Shenyang's local government pledged seven million yuan (£680,000) to help save the remaining animals after news of the tiger deaths broke last week. Zookeepers have cleaned and installed heating in the tiger cages, given the animals nutritional supplements and started feeding them 2.5kg of beef and two hens per day, Xinhua said.