Society

A journey into the Amazon Jaguar black market

brazilian amazon jaguar

This investigative piece was produced by InfoAmazonia, RAI-Bolivia e Mongabay Latam

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At first glance, Li Ming and his wife Yin Lan look like two ordinary Chinese citizens. Sat on a bench, they greet the relatives who have come to visit them with warm, kind smiles. It’s lunchtime. One of the visitors approaches the couple with two bags of rice and chicken. Yin stands up and politely asks the policewoman who is sitting next to me to loosen the shackles that are cutting off the blood circulation to her hands. Almost three hours have passed. The judge presiding over the case of illegal wildlife trafficking for which Ming and Lan stand accused does not show up. The hearing is suspended for the sixth time.

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Li Ming and Yin Lan

Li Ming and Yin Lan are Chinese citizens with Bolivian identity cards. On February 23, 2018, they were arrested in their chicken restaurant in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in possession of 185 Amazon jaguar fangs, three jaguar pelts, several parts from different animal species, one 22 caliber pistol, and a large sum of Bolivian and foreign currency.

After two months of detailed follow-up, the authorities of the Government of Santa Cruz, the National Police and the Public Prosecutor’s Office carried out a joint operation that ended with the arrest of the Chinese couple. An unprecedented case, and considered by the same authorities to be the harshest blow to Bolivian biodiversity.

Between 2013 and 2018, around 171 Amazon jaguars were stalked and slain in Bolivian forests, in one of the worst killings since the 1970s, when these animals were chased for their pelts. Nowadays, these felines are victims of the black market for Jaguar parts, mainly their fangs. To date, authorities have seized a total of 684 jaguar fangs from Chinese smugglers. Of this amount, 119 teeth sent from Bolivia were confiscated by customs authorities in Beijing. In most cases, these fangs were hidden in key rings, necklaces, chocolate, and wine boxes, to conceal the crime being committed.

These illegal goods form a monument to human greed, promoted by superstitions and the dark business of wildlife trafficking, which each year moves an estimated USD 19 billion worldwide, and which today is among the gravest threats to the biggest cat in the Americas.

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The Amazon Jaguar

Amazon Jaguar fangs for traditional Chinese medicine

For more than 1,000 years, the use of Asian tiger parts (Panthera tigris) has been part of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), as an alternative to expensive Western remedies. Although China banned the use of tiger bones in 1993, the sale of the product and its derivatives never stopped.

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Chinese medicines containing Amazon Jaguar and rhino parts

Moreover, many people in Chinese culture believe that the strength and mythical power of the tiger give its parts medicinal qualities that help treat chronic ailments, cure diseases, replenish the essential energy of the body and offer aphrodisiac powers. They also believe that by ingesting them, one absorbs the vital force of the animal, its vigor and attributes. Besides, it is considered a religious amulet of good luck, and as a symbol of status, strength, and power by the people who show them off in necklaces.

Although experts of Western medicine tend to ignore the healing power of the tiger parts, regarded in TCM as having similar properties to aspirin, in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, and the Chinatowns in Europe and North America, drug stores sell products derived from tigers. This has increased since the 1980s, as the growing Chinese middle class gained more purchasing power and the use of TCM gained more prestige.

However, considering the scarcity of Asian tigers, with a population estimated at just 3,200, the Asian demand seems to have found the perfect substitute: the Amazon jaguar. This fact is putting pressure on the 173,000 jaguars which are estimated to inhabit the American continent, according to a new study.

Richard Thomas, from the NGO Traffic, tells me that the members of his organization announced that jaguar’s fangs and claws are apparently entering the illegal trade as substitutes for Asian tiger parts.

This led to authorities arresting Li, a Chinese businessman that used to live in Bolivia. He was caught on the afternoon of March 18, 2015, in Beijing airport, with 119 Amazon jaguar fangs which he had hidden under carefully packed wine boxes. Today, Li is serving a sentence of four and a half years in prison for the crime of smuggling wildlife. Also, he had to pay a fine of 7,826 USD for his crime.

Concerning Li Ming and Yin Lan, they are accused of the crime of Destruction and Deterioration of State Property and National Wealth, according to article 223 of the Bolivian Penal Code, which has a penalty of one to six years in prison. Also, given the seriousness of their crime, the Bolivian authorities and representatives of civil society have requested they receive the maximum penalty.

Amazon Jaguar fangs in Beni

I arrive at a local market in the city of Trinidad, the capital of the Department of Beni, Bolivia. I enter what looks like an ordinary craft shop. On the shelves, I carefully observe two jaguar skulls that seem to belong to young felines, due to their size. The heads still have all of their fangs intact.

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Amazon Jaguar teeth: USD 100-150/each

– Do you have any bigger teeth? – I ask the seller, while he waits for another customer to leave before answering.

– Yes, come here. – He whispers.

From a drawer, he pulls out three large jaguar fangs, roughly eight centimeters long apiece, which he places on a table with a transparent plastic tablecloth.

– How much are these? – I...

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