More on the Chinese Year of the Tiger:
Eleven rare Siberian tigers have died over the last three months at a zoo in north-eastern China.
The local authorities believe that a lack of food contributed to their deaths, according to media reports….
A local wildlife protection official, Liu Xiaoqiang, is reported to have said that malnutrition was one cause.
The tigers were apparently fed cheap chicken bones.
Mr Liu also said that the tigers had been kept in very small cages, restricting their movement and lowering their resistance to disease. …
In China there is also still a trade in tiger parts, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
They are used to treat rheumatism and to strengthen bones.
The BBC recently found that the Siberia Tiger Park, based in Heilongjiang Province in the northeast of China, is selling a "tiger bone wine" that contains three small tiger bones.
For my earlier look at Chinese attitudes to Siberian tigers, see here.
Mick Hartley 
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