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CATT Index

A brief look at the tiger trade by numbers.

• Number of wild tigers in Asia in 1800: 100,000

• Number of wild tigers in 2005: 5,000 or less

• Number of Asian countries with confirmed wild tigers: 14

• Number of countries with tiger populations over 500: 2

• Number of tigers in accredited zoos worldwide: less than 1,000

• Number of tigers in farms, safari parks & private menageries: more than 15,000

• Number of wild tiger subspecies in 1950: 9

• Number of wild tiger subspecies in 2005: 6

• Year international trade in all tigers banned: 1987

• Number of countries signatory to ban: 169

• Year China banned trade in tiger-bone medicines: 1993

• Number units of tiger-bone medicines traded annually before ban: >27 million

• Price buyers willing to pay for tiger pelt in China: $10,000

• Average per capita income in country (India) with largest tiger population: $524

• Number of tiger skins seized since 1999: ~260

• Number of kilograms of tiger bone seized in illegal trade since 2000: ~566

• Average number of kilograms of bone per tiger (minus skull): 12

• Percentage of Shanghai residents in 1998 survey aware that the tiger is an endangered species: 88

• Percentage of Shanghai residents in 1998 survey who would use tiger bone: 51.6

• Known number of tigers killed in India from 1994-2003: 684

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References
1. Seidensticker, et al. (eds.), 1999, Riding the Tiger:Tiger conservation in human-dominated landscapes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
2, 3 & 4. John Seidensticker, National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA, pers. comm., September 2005, based on reports in Save The Tiger Fund files.
5. Sarah Christie, London Zoo, Zoological Society of London, Regent?s Park, London, UK, pers. comm., September 2005.
6. Sarah Christie, London Zoo, Zoological Society of London, Regent?s Park, London, UK, pers. comm., September 2005; and John Seidensticker, National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA, pers. comm., September 2005.
7 & 8. Luo, et al., 2004, Phylogeography and Genetic Ancestry of Tigers (Panthera tigrs), PLoS Biology, 2(10), 2275-2293.
9. Mills and Jackson, 1994, Killed For a Cure: A review of the worldwide trade in tiger bone. TRAFFIC International, Cambridge, UK.
10. John Sellar, CITES Secretariat, Geneva, Switzerland, pers. comm., August 2005.
11 & 12. Mills and Jackson, 1994, Killed For a Cure: A review of the worldwide trade in tiger bone. TRAFFIC International, Cambridge, UK.
13. Banks and Newman, 2004, The Tiger Skin Trail, Environmental Investigation Agency, London, UK
14. Silicon India Magazine, August 31, 2005, www.siliconindia.com, last accessed September 18, 2005.
15. Belinda Wright, Wildlife Protection Society of India, pers. comm., September 2005.
16. Belinda Wright, Wildlife Protection Society of India, pers. comm., September 2005.
17. Wildlife Protection Society of India, www.wpsi-india.org, last accessed September 18, 2005.
18 & 19. Zhang and Li, 2004, Trace: WCS-ACCP Review, Wildlife Conservation Society China Program, Shanghai, China.
20. Wildlife Protection Society of India, www.wpsi-india.org, last accessed September 18, 2005.