A new survey says more than 1,000 tigers have been killed across Asia over the past decade and their body parts sold on the international black market.
The study by British-based Traffic International says between 1,000 and 1,200 tigers were seized in 11 of the 13 countries where tigers live in the wild. India saw the most seizures of tiger parts, followed by China and Nepal.
The group says a growing number of tigers have been killed in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Burma's borders with India and China were major trading hotspots, as were the Malaysia-Thai and Russia-Chinese borders.
The illegally traded tiger parts included skins, bones, skulls, claws and genitals. Whole tigers, both live and dead, were also traded.
Traffic International carried out the study in collaboration with the Worldwide Fund for Nature.
The WWF estimates that only 3,200 tigers remain in the wild, down from about 100,000 a century ago.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
