short communication

Table 1. Main events in the fight against the illegal trade in cheetahs. issue in 2012. The RWCP continues to work
Timeline to combat the illegal cheetah trade and
1. Aug 2012 - Draft report on illegal cheetah trade circulated (RWCP) provides strategic support for governments
in this regard.
2. Jan 2013 - Collaboration of concerned African countries Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda place
cheetah on agenda for CITES CoP16
References
3. Mar 2013 - 16th Conference of the Parties to CITES debates illegal cheetah trade for first time Durant S. M., Mitchell N., Groom R., Pettorelli
4. Mar 2014 - First global study of cheetah trade submitted to CITES N., Ipavec A. et al. 2017. The global decline
5. May 2014 - 27th meeting of the Animals Committee recommends Parties consider cheetah as of cheetah Acinonyx jubatus and what it me-
species of priority in enforcement ans for conservation. Proceedings of the Na-
tional Academy of Sciences. www.pnas.org/
6. Jul 2014 - Establishment of CITES intersessional working group on illegal trade in cheetahs (65th
doi:10.1073/pnas.1611122114
meeting of the Standing Committee)
Elsayed M. E. 2017. Victory: UAE bans personal owner-
7. Mid-2015 - Survey of compliance and enforcement regarding cheetah trade ship of wild animals. IFAW website: http://www.
8. Nov 2015 - Kuwait workshop on illegal cheetah trade ifaw.org/international/news/victory-uae-bans-per-
9. Jan 2016 - 66th meeting of CITES Standing Committee identifies recommendations to CoP17 sonal-ownership-wild-animals 05/07/2017.
10. Sept-Oct 2016 - 17th Conference of the Parties to CITES agrees landmark recommendations and Kaiser C., Wernery U., Kinne J., Marker L. & Liese-
decisions on illegal cheetah trade gang A. 2014. The Role of Copper and Vitamin
A Deficiencies Leading to Neurological Signs
11. Dec 2016 - meeting of Horn of Africa Wildlife Enforcement Network
in Captive Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) and Li-
12. Dec 2016 - UAE enacts legislation to ban private ownership of dangerous and wild animals
ons (Panthera leo) in the United Arab Emirates.
13. Dec 2016 - 1st workshop in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to draft a strategy to fight the illegal cheetah Food and Nutrition Sciences 5, 20.
trade. Nowell K. 2014. Illegal Trade in Cheetahs (Acino-
nyx jubatus). Report to the Sixty-fifth meeting
United Arab Emirates officially enacted their Many populations of cheetah are now down of the Standing Committee, Geneva, Switzer-
legislation to ban the private ownership to a handful of individuals, and, without ac- land, 7-11 July 2014.
of dangerous and wild animals, including tion, illegal trade could wipe out these vulne-
cheetah (Elsayed 2017). These actions show rable populations.
50 Range Wide Conservation Program for Cheetah
1

both source and demand countries starting to The authors belong to the Range Wide Con- and African Wild Dogs RWCP, a project of the
work more effectively to enforce protection servation Program for Cheetah and African Zoological Society of London and the Wildlife
and reduce demand. This is not a moment too Wild Dogs RWCP which first engaged with Conservation Society
soon for the survival of cheetah in the wild. CITES in support of the Parties tabling the

ÁNGELA M. NUÑEZ1* & ENZO ALIAGA-ROSSE2 of 186 jaguar fangs (Fig. 1), implying at least

JAGUAR FANGS TRAFFI-

the killing of 50 jaguars. So far, none of these
shippers has been convicted.

CKING BY CHINESE in BOLI-

In December 2014, during a house search in
a Chinese citizen house in the rural tropical

VIA
town of Rurrenabaque-Beni (Choque 2015),
the authorities found several parts of wild-
life specimens including a jaguar skull and
We present evidence of jaguar Panthera onca fangs trafficking promoted by Chinese teeth (but no fangs). In the Chinese’s com-
citizens residing in Bolivia. Such events are a wake-up call for the negative effect of puter, dozens of photos of jaguar fangs, and
this illegal activity on jaguar populations. It requires effective immediate actions of jewellery made out of jaguar fangs were
awareness raising, prevention, and control at local, regional and international level found, inferring that he was involved in
to stop this new threat. fang trafficking. As wildlife trafficking is a
crime according to Bolivian law, the autho-
Jaguars are suffering from decreasing po- MA and the Postal Company of Bolivia ECO- rities started a lawsuit; to date the Chinese
pulations (Caso et al. 2008). In Bolivia, there BOL intercepted and confiscated eight mail is with precautionary measures, waiting for
is a recently discovered demand for its body shipments from Santa Cruz and Cochabamba the verdict (Choque 2015).
parts. In this paper, we present evidence of departments to destinations in China (Choque In May 2016, another Chinese citizen al-
jaguar fang trafficking from Bolivia to the Chi- 2015). The sender of one of these parcels was legedly paid for a radio announcement in
nese market. a Bolivian citizen; Chinese citizens residing in Rurrenabaque, where he offered buying ja-
From August 2014 to February 2015, the Bo- Bolivia were responsible for the other seven guar fangs (SERNAP 2016). He was caught
livian Forestry Police and Environment POFO- shipments. The packages contained a total in the act carrying seven jaguar fangs and

CATnews 65 Winter 2017


is to date waiting for his trial. The radio ad-
vertisement, offering US$ 120-150 per fang,
is a very strong and tempting economic in-
centive for locals, as it corresponds to about
their monthly income. The traffickers take
advantage of the economic needs of local
people. Haken (2011) noted that the global
illicit trade of wildlife inflicts significant
harm on developing countries; traffickers
exploit poverty and inequality to induce and
promote poaching.
In August 2016, we discovered flyers offer-
ing money for jaguar fangs distributed in the
extreme northern part of Bolivia, so far a
new region for this illegal activity. We have
unconfirmed information that solely in 2016,
151 jaguar fangs were confiscated by POFO-
MA with the support of ECOBOL, directed
to China by several Chinese citizens, repre-
senting at least 38 killed jaguars. However,
there were no further investigations or legal
actions taken so far.
This trafficking of jaguar fangs could be re-
lated to the recent arrival of Chinese compa-
nies involved in large development projects
by the Bolivian government. The arrival of
large numbers of Chinese workers may in-
clude not only potential customers of wild-
life products, but also potential marketers
(Manzaneda 2016).
On December 2016, the local government of
Beni received an impeachment about a site
of hoard of jaguar parts (Beni Government
com pers.). They found 34 jaguar skulls, all
without fangs, which apparently are the
most valuable pieces for the traffickers.
Unfortunately, there was no information on
the killing sites. This case is currently under
investigation.
Jaguars are categorised as Near Threatened
by IUCN, and “Vulnerable to extinction” in the
Red Book of vertebrates of Bolivia (Aguirre et
al. 2009). Despite this listing, Bolivian law
enforcement is insufficient. Information on
jaguar fang trafficking comes from the vicini-
ty of protected areas, proba-bly because PAs
might have higher jaguar densities and/or be-
cause more information might be available,
perhaps from park rangers, which control and
patrol. Such information is not available out-
side protected areas (protected areas staff
pers. com.).
It is estimated that nowadays only around
2000 to 3000 jaguars are left in the wild in
Bolivia (G. Ayala pers. com.). Based solely on
the confiscated fangs, we have the evidence
of at least 87 killed jaguars. The bold adver-
tising of buyers by radio, flyers or by word of
CATnews 65 Winter 2017
jaguar fangs trafficking in Bolivia
Fig. 1. Nineteen seized jaguar fangs (three to five cm) smuggled in a stuffed toy and
a box of chocolates, which were intercepted before being sent to China (Photo A. M.
Nuñez).
mouth is not restricted to a single area. We
are sure that it is widely spread in areas with
jaguar presence in Bolivia.
We here present only information of ship-
ments attempting to smuggle jaguar fangs
by regular mail that were detected; assum-
ingly there were more undiscovered cases
of trafficking. Bolivian borders are extend-
ed, with many remote natural areas, where
contraband easily can leave the country.
The tiger was dangerously reduced by traf-
ficking; we are afraid that jaguars may face
the same fate if preventive actions are not
taken immediately.
Suppression of this illegal activity is a chal-
lenge for the authorities and the Bolivians.
There are gaps in the environmental legisla-
tion, as well as a lack of capacity of the in-
stitutions responsible for prevention, control
and supervision of illegal wildlife activities.
These shortcomings need to be rectified
through e-ducation and awareness-raising,
aimed to the respective institutions and the
general public. Of high importance is reach-
ing out to local people that are part of the
trafficking chain.
It is necessary to prioritise preventive
measures in areas with high jaguar densities
where poachers can increase persecution.
Anecdotic information indicates that jaguar
trafficking is also occurring in other Latin-
American countries (R. Moreno, E. Payan
pers. com.). Therefore, we must create stra-
tegic alliances at regional level to join efforts,
as jaguar poaching and trafficking is obvious-
ly an international issue.
Acknowledgements
We thank the authorities involved in these actions,
which provided information. Thanks also to all the
people that shared our concern and presented the
alert to this issue. Thanks to POFOMA, SERNAP
and the park rangers.
References
Aguirre, L. F. R. Aguayo, J. Balderrama, C. Cortez
& T. Tarifa 2009. Libro rojo de la fauna silves-
tre de vertebrados de Bolivia. Ministerio de
Medio Ambiente y Agua. 776p.
Caso A., Lopez-Gonzalez C., Payan E., Eizirik
E., de Oliveira T., Leite-Pitman R., Kelly M.
& Valderrama C. 2008. Panthera onca. The 51
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008:
e.T15953A5327466. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/
IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS.T15953A5327466.en.
Downloaded on 20 January 2017.
Choque Marilyn. 20.04.2015. Mercado Negro
de Colmillos (Fangs Black Market). La Ra-
zón. Bolivia. http://www.la-razon.com/suple-
mentos/informe/Mercado-negro-colmillos-
informe_0_2254574635.html
Haken J. 2011. Transnational Crime in the De-
veloping World, Global Financial Integrity.
Available at: http://transcrime.gfintegrity.org/.
Manzaneda Daniel. 29.06.2016. La presencia chi-
na en Bolivia no trae solo corrupción y tráfico
de influencias, sino también tráfico de ani-
males silvestres. FOBOMADE. http://www.
fobomade.org.bo/art-2538
SERNAP, Redaccion Central. 03.06.2016. Apre-
henden a presunto traficante de colmillos de
jaguar. Los Tiempos. http://www.lostiempos.
com/tendencias/medio-ambiente/20160603/
aprehenden-presunto-traficante-colmillos-
jaguar.
Centro de Estudios en Biología Teórica y Aplica-
1
da – BIOTA, La Paz Bolivia
*<am.nunezquiroz@gmail.com>
Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Mayor de San
2
Andrés, Calle 27 s/n campus Universitario, Cota
Cota, La Paz, Bolivia.