Explained: Why Tiger Bone Wine Threatens African Lions With Extinction

Why Did Poachers Shift to African Lions?

When stripped of their fur and skin, tiger and lion skeletons are virtually indistinguishable to the untrained eye. DNA testing is required to tell them apart. This anatomical similarity made African lions an obvious—and much cheaper—alternative for suppliers looking to meet Asian market demand.

The first CITES permit to export lion bones was issued in February 2008. Between 2008 and 2016, more than 6,000 lion skeletons were exported from South Africa, with legal exports rising from approximately 50 individuals in 2008 to a maximum of 1,771 skeletons in 2016, according to research published in PLOS One.

These bones flowed primarily to Vietnam, Laos, China, and Thailand, where they entered established tiger bone supply chains. Lion bones are used to make products marketed as tiger bone wine, while lion claws and teeth are turned into jewelry and trinkets, often labeled as coming from tigers.

The Environmental Investigation Agency has documented evidence of at least eight wildlife seizures, mostly since 2015, in which lion products were labeled as coming from tigers. "It's likely happening much more often," said Aron White, a wildlife campaigner and researcher with the organization.

The trade initially emerged from South Africa's trophy hunting industry. The country hosts an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 captive-bred lions in more than 350 facilities—far more than South Africa's wild population of approximately 3,500 individuals. These lions are bred for "canned hunting" (where lions are shot in small enclosures with no chance of escape), cub petting tourism, and live exports.

Trophy hunters typically wanted only the head and skin as trophies. The remaining skeleton was considered a waste product until Asian bone markets emerged. However, a 2017 study found that 91% of exported skeletons included the skull, suggesting lions were being killed specifically for the bone trade rather than skeletons being mere by-products of trophy hunting.

The industry's trajectory changed dramatically in October 2016 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service banned imports of captive-bred lion trophies, determining that canned hunting had "no conservation value." A subsequent study published in PLOS One surveyed 117 captive lion facilities in South Africa and found that while most scaled down operations after the U.S. ban, 30 percent said they turned to the lion bone trade.

In 2017, South Africa's government set an annual export quota of 800 lion skeletons. In 2018, officials raised the quota to 1,500, then reduced it back to 800 following public outcry. A 2019 High Court ruling declared the quotas "unlawful and constitutionally invalid" because the government had ignored animal welfare considerations. In October 2025, the quota was officially set to zero. However, in November 2025, the minister who implemented the zero quota was fired, and industry groups immediately filed lawsuits seeking to reinstate exports.

How Does Legal Lion Bone Trade Fuel Wild Poaching?

The legal captive lion bone trade from South Africa did not reduce pressure on wild lions. Instead, conservation researchers warn it has had the opposite effect by stimulating demand and providing cover for illegal trade in wild lion parts.

Research published by WildCRU at Oxford University surveyed consumer preferences for lion and tiger bone wines in China and Vietnam. In both countries, tiger bone wine was greatly preferred over lion bone wine. More critically, respondents showed strong preferences for wild-sourced products over farmed ones. In China, 55% of consumers preferred their big cat products sourced from the wild; in Vietnam, 84% of those consuming these products preferred wild over farmed.

"This preference for wild products means that creating a legal supply of captive-bred lion bones does not satisfy the market demand driving wild lion poaching," the researchers concluded.

A 2024 study published in Nature Conservation presented even more damning evidence. Researchers conducted direct interviews with workers at two closed-access lion facilities in South Africa's North West Province. The whistleblowers described facilities using legal captive breeding and hunting operations as cover for involvement in the illegal international big cat bone trade.

The informants revealed that some lion facilities kept tigers on-site—a finding with serious implications since international commercial trade in tigers is completely prohibited under CITES. Because tiger and lion bones are indistinguishable without DNA testing, having both species at the same facility creates opportunities to mix and launder tiger bones through the legal lion bone export system. In 2018, South Africa's compliance monitoring successfully identified and prevented the attempted laundering of a tiger skeleton within the lion bone quota.

The workers also reported that facilities were experiencing pressure from organized poaching networks suspected of targeting both captive lions and tigers for illegal wildlife trade. Often, only the heads and paws of poisoned animals were harvested by poachers—the parts containing the most valuable teeth and claws.

World Animal Protection investigators received evidence from anonymous sources describing "unimaginable animal suffering" at unregulated "off-grid" lion farms, along with details of how facilities use South Africa's legal lion breeding industry to cover their involvement in illegal international bone exports.

Dr. Neil D'Cruze, World Animal Protection's Global Head of Wildlife Research, stated: "Even as experienced researchers, we were deeply disturbed by the cruel practices taking place. It is sickening to see these majestic mammals reduced to mere commodities kept in merciless conditions."

Forensic investigations documented in the Daily Maverick found that some exporters were shipping skeletons that exceeded legal weight limits, suggesting they were slipping extra skeletons into consignments and exceeding quotas unchecked. Past reports also revealed that South Africa was issuing CITES export permits to known wildlife traffickers, including members of the notorious Xaysavang Network—one of the world's most wanted wildlife crime syndicates.

Is Wild Lion Poaching Increasing?

While habitat loss, prey depletion, and human-wildlife conflict have long driven lion population declines, the January 2026 Conservation Letters study emphasizes that targeted poaching for body parts represents a distinct and escalating threat.

"Over the past decade, reports of targeted poaching for lion body parts have increased, driven by local and transnational demand for traditional medicine and cultural practices," the authors write. The research documents a growing, organized trade in lion bones, claws, teeth, and skins driven by demand in African and Asian markets.

According to Panthera, there has been a "massive spike" in lion killings in recent years. Paul Funston, senior director of Panthera's lion program, explains: "Poachers cut off the head and feet and leave the mutilated carcass. They extract the teeth and claws later."

The data from specific lion populations illustrate the devastating impact:

Mozambique's Limpopo National Park provides perhaps the starkest example of collapse. According to research by Kris Everatt published in Biodiversity and Conservation, lion numbers dropped from 67 in 2012 to just 21 in 2017—a 70% decline in five years. Targeted poaching for body parts accounted for 61% of all mortalities within the park and 35% of known human-caused mortalities across the greater landscape. Additionally, body parts were removed in 48% of conflict cases, suggesting that demand for lion parts was incentivizing even retaliatory killings.

"I've already seen the bone trade cause the collapse of the wild lion population in Mozambique's Limpopo National Park," Everatt told ABC News. He warned that any action the South African government might take would be "too little, too late."

West Africa faces a particularly dire situation. According to the Conservation Letters study, market surveys highlight the extreme scale of demand relative to remaining populations. In Senegal, domestic use alone may require between 32 and 169 lions annually, despite the country having only 35 to 45 wild lions remaining. The entire West African region now hosts only approximately 400 wild lions, with 100 of them living in Benin's Pendjari National Park.

Uganda's lion populations have suffered devastating losses. In Kidepo National Park, numbers dropped from 132 lions in 2010 to fewer than 10 today, according to African Wildlife Foundation research. In Queen Elizabeth National Park, 11 tree-climbing lions died from poisoning in 2018. In March 2020, six lions from one pride were poisoned, though their body parts were not taken in that incident.

Recent poaching incidents demonstrate the expanding geographic scope:

• Botswana (June 2025): A pride of lions was poached in the NG34 concession in the Okavango Delta, and all had body parts removed
• Kruger National Park (June 2025): Multiple incidents where lions were lured with poisoned bait and had parts removed
• Tanzania: A 2021 TRAFFIC report found that body parts were traded domestically, regionally, and internationally, with lion claws and teeth being the most-traded commodities

According to Andrew Loveridge, Director of the Lion Program at Panthera, "What this research makes clear is that lion poaching is no longer a localized problem. While many of the killings are occurring in southern and eastern Africa, strong demand in West African markets—including Senegal—is helping to fuel cross-border trade networks that are putting lion populations under growing pressure across the continent."

How Are Wild Lions Killed for the Bone Trade?

The methods documented by researchers demonstrate that modern lion poaching for body parts is not opportunistic but rather involves "forethought and coordination characteristic of experienced and organized poaching networks," according to the Conservation Letters study.

Poisoned Bait Operations: In recent years, there have been numerous incidents where giraffes have been deliberately killed and used as bait to attract lions. The giraffe carcasses are laced with poison, and when lions feed on them, multiple individuals can be killed in a single event. This method requires minimal risk to poachers, especially in remote areas where detection is low.

The collateral damage from poison baits extends far beyond lions. In 2019, four lions were poisoned in the Central Tuli Area of Botswana, and in the same incident, a black-backed jackal, 70 white-backed vultures, and a steppe eagle were also killed. Vulture populations across Africa are critically threatened, and poisoning events targeting lions significantly contribute to their decline.

Targeted Removal of Body Parts: Kristin Nowell from TRAFFIC explains why poachers increasingly target teeth and claws rather than full skeletons: "That could be quite a process, to butcher and extract the bones—quite heavy to carry off a full lion carcass—so a quick getaway might be part of it. Also, the teeth and claws are easier to smuggle."

The January 2026 killings in Limpopo National Park exemplify this pattern. National Geographic described the scene: The four young lions "were found lying on sandy ground near the remains of a poisoned calf. No one witnessed the silent slaughter—only the gruesome aftermath. The faces and paws of all four cats had been hacked off."

Organized Criminal Networks: The lion bone trade increasingly intersects with other illegal wildlife trafficking. The IUCN's 2016 lion assessment warned that "wild lion parts from eastern and southern Africa could be drawn into the large illegal wildlife trade to Asia centered around elephant ivory." These fears have been realized.

In June 2017, a Chinese national was arrested at Maputo International Airport in Mozambique with lion teeth and claws, as well as items made with ivory. In Senegal, lion teeth were seized as part of the country's biggest ivory haul. In South Africa, 19 lion teeth and 51 claws were discovered in a package containing a rhino horn bound for Nigeria. In 2023, Mozambique Wildlife Alliance assisted in seizing over 300 kilograms of lion body parts in Maputo, along with body parts from many other species.

According to Nowell, "If you're in that trade, whether you're selling ivory, rhino horn, body parts of lions, it's the same markets, same ways of getting it out of the country, which the different levels of people involved know. It's an opportunity to make money. So it's more product. There is no doubt the same people are being used."