Jaguars following tigers for use in Chinese medicine
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Jaguars are also being killed for their teeth and other body parts so as they can be used in traditional Chinese medicine. China's huge economic influence has stretched across the planet to Central and South America where it is investing enormous amounts of money in poorer countries and as an offshoot wildlife and in particular the big cats are suffering by vacuming their skins and body parts back to China. The body parts of exotic animals such as tigers, rhinos and pangolins are believed by practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine to have curative properties. Tigers in the wild are on their last legs throughout their remaining ranges with the overall number of the majestic predators standing at far fewer than 5,000, as opposed to an estimated 100,000 a mere century ago. With the population of tigers having plummeted, illegal wildlife smugglers are turning to other top-level predators like jaguars as alternatives. More on this worrying trend can be read by following the link below.