Live Trade – Page 2 – Blood Lions

South Africa’s LIVE Leopard Trade

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Although these solitary and secretive cats have a huge habitat range, according to the IUCN Red List, leopard is Near Threatened. South Africa’s TOPS list puts leopard in the Vulnerable category and CITES placed them in Appendix I, meaning that commercial trade, among others, is prohibited.

South Africa exported 74 live leopards during the period 2010-2020, of which nearly one quarter were animals from the wild rather than captive-bred. This is the highest proportion of wild live felids exported from South Africa during that time period.

Some of the threats that put pressure on wild leopard populations across Africa include habitat loss, legal and illegal trade in leopard parts, trophy hunting, and human-wildlife conflict.

Cheetahs Destined for International Zoos

The United States is another main importer of live cheetahs from South Africa with the main trade purpose being zoos and breeding in captivity.

Although many zoos will claim the need for captive breeding of the endangered cheetah for conservation purposes, none of these cheetahs will ever be returned to the wild.

Many of the cheetahs exported from South Africa have already been habituated through hand-rearing by paying volunteers and interactive tourism activities. These habituated animals go straight into the “Pay to Play” programmes that numerous zoos in the USA offer.

“Pay to Play” is exactly what it implies – paying visitors are allowed to pet and/or walk with these well-behaved “ambassador cheetahs”.

It is time to #CancelCaptivity

Where do South Africa’s Live Exported Cheetah Go?

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The top 5 importing countries of live cheetahs from South Africa (2010 to 2020) are:

China
United States
United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Russian Federation
Australia

The distribution is quite evenly spread across the globe, although China features as number one again with 125 cheetahs imported over the period of 2010-2020, mainly for zoos and breeding in captivity purposes.

The UAE imported 89 cheetahs not only for zoos and breeding in captivity, but also for medical and personal reasons. The UAE is known as a destination where the keeping of exotic wild animals, such as cheetahs, lions and tigers, became a status symbol. In January 2017, the UAE passed a law to make it illegal for people to keep such wild animals as pets and to use them for breeding and trading.

South Africa’s Live Cheetah Trade

This fastest land animal is often overlooked when we discuss the South African predator breeding industry, even though South Africa has a thriving live cheetah export market.

Between 2010-2020, South Africa exported 576 live cheetahs, most of which were captive-bred in many of our captive lion breeding facilities, to 46 different countries worldwide.

On a global scale, cheetahs are Vulnerable with an estimated population of 6,700 adults. In southern Africa, cheetah occur in only 22% of their historical range and threats include conflict with larger predators, loss of prey species and habitat changes.

Why are Live Lions Traded?

The top 5 purposes for the legal trade in live lions from South Africa according to the CITES Trade Database are for:

Zoos
Commercial purposes
Breeding in captivity
Hunting trophy
Circus or travelling exhibition

This means that South Africa’s captive-bred lions go from one commercial breeding farms where their welfare and well-being isn’t prioritised into another with even more miserable captive conditions.

Where do South Africa’s Live Exported Lions Go?

The top 5 countries importing live lions from South Africa are:

China
Thailand
Pakistan
Vietnam
Bangladesh

Collectively, they have imported half of the total 2,164 live lions traded from South Africa between 2010-2020.

China alone imported a total of 561 live lions from South Africa in this 10 year period – more than a quarter of the CITES reported exported number of live lions from SA.

South Africa’s LIVE LION Trade

Between 2010-2020, South Africa exported 2,164 LIVE lions globally. This is in addition to the many lion hunting trophies and body parts we export for commercial purposes.

The vast majority (98.5%) of these live lions were bred in captivity and exported from South Africa legally under the CITES system.

Live Lions exported from captive-bred population from 2010-2020

98%

Purposes for Live Big Cats Exported

The vast majority (91.1%) of big cat species exported live from South Africa between 2010 and 2020 were bought by zoos, commercial ventures and captive breeding facilities.

The purpose code T (commercial) is an extremely broad and problematic term, as it often means that the animal is bought by a professional dealer based internationally, who will sell the animal on to the highest bidder.

Follow on over the next few weeks as we unpack what the statistics are telling us about South Africa’s live wildlife trade.

Why does the Live Trade in Wildlife Exist?

Why does the Live Trade in wildlife exist?

The answer can be obtained from the CITES Trade Database, which is publicly available.

For every CITES permit issued, the purpose of the transaction is recorded, which include:

Breeding in captivity
Circus
Zoo
Education
Reintroduction into the wild
Scientific purposes

The welfare and well-being of the wild animals involved in the global live trade are often not taken into consideration.

Read more on the global live wildlife trade in this Daily Maverick article.

The global demand for live wildlife is substantial

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The global demand for live wildlife is substantial.

The legal trade of wildlife currently takes place under the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) system.

Between 2010 and 2020, South Africa legally exported a total of 5,345 big cats. Of those:

4,888 were indigenous big cats (lions, leopards, cheetahs, caracals and servals)
457 were exotic big cats (tigers, jaguars and pumas).

Most of these wild animals are intentionally bred in the many commercial captive breeding facilities in South Africa.

Over the coming weeks we will be unpacking the CITES Trade Database and looking at where these wild animals are exported to and for what purposes.