- BY tictac
- POSTED IN Jungle News
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Lions are a lucrative business in South Africa. Forget the earnings from tourists in Kruger National Park, hundreds of ‘lion farms’ have been attracting trophy hunters- mainly from US-since the late 1990s.
Two years ago, when the US banned the import of lion trophies, the farms turned their attention to hunters in poorer places like Pakistan and China, while also getting into Southeast Asia’s tiger bone trade.
Lion skeletons are sent to Laos, from where wildlife syndicates push them onward as tiger bone. The bones are turned into expensive ‘tiger bone cake’ and ‘tiger bone wine’ that are believed to have medicinal properties.
200-400 Lion farms in South Africa
7,000-14,000 Captive-bred lions held by them
6,000 Lion skeletons shipped abroad during 2008-16 .
Lion Factories– In the wild lionesses give birth once every 18-24 months, but at the farms they deliver four litters in the same period as the cubs are taken away soon after birth
Lion skeleton export limit 2018-1,500
Lion skeleton export limit 2017-800
