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New study says trade in South African lion bones is surging

FILE - In this file photo taken Tuesday, July 7, 2015, an old male lion raises his head above the long grass in the early morning, in the savannah of the Maasai Mara, south-western Kenya. Conservationists warn that the increased use of lion bones to replace tiger bones in traditional medicines in parts of Asia is seen as a new potential threat to Africa's wild lion population. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
FILE - In this file photo taken Tuesday, July 7, 2015, an old male lion raises his head above the long grass in the early morning, in the savannah of the Maasai Mara, south-western Kenya. Conservationists warn that the increased use of lion bones to replace tiger bones in traditional medicines in parts of Asia is seen as a new potential threat to Africa's wild lion population. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) FILE - In this file photo taken Tuesday, July 7, 2015, an old male lion raises his head above the long grass in the early morning, in the savannah of the Maasai Mara, south-western Kenya. Conservationists warn that the increased use of lion bones to replace tiger bones in traditional medicines in parts of Asia is seen as a new potential threat to Africa's wild lion population. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

By Associated Press 2 min read

JOHANNESBURG (AP) – Conservationists are warning of a new potential threat to Africa’s wild lion population: The increasing use of lion bones to replace tiger bones in traditional medicine in parts of Asia.

The lion bone trade, which has surged since around 2008, is mostly based on the legal hunting of captive-bred lions in South Africa, with negligible impact on the country’s wild lion population, according to a study released last month.

More research is needed to determine whether the “harvesting” of lion bones may be occurring elsewhere in Africa, said Dr. Vivienne Williams, a researcher at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and the main author of the lion bone study.

Lions are designated as vulnerable on an international “red list” of species facing threats. The International Union for Conservation of Nature noted successful lion conservation in southern Africa, but said lions in West Africa are critically endangered and rapid population declines were recorded in East Africa.

TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring network, and the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at the University of Oxford were also involved in the lion bone report. The university research group had been monitoring Cecil, a lion whose allegedly illegal killing by an American hunter in Zimbabwe prompted an international uproar.