Mittuniversitetet

Jaguars and Tigers are both threatened species and top-predators in their natural surroundings in the Americas and in Asia respectively. In the Americans, jaguars are now considered “near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature despite all the international trade of jaguar products being prohibited under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species since 1975. The population of tigers has declined,they become listed as endangered species and poaching is considered to be the primary cause. Recent research indicates an increasing pressure on Jaguars, which is likely to begin to replace tiger products being sold for avariety of reasons but particularly as ingredients used in traditional medicine in some Asian countries. Latin America now represents a potential new hotspot for the opening of such a market mainly due to lack of funding for wildlife crime prevention, insufficient enforcement provisions (control and sanctions) and poverty. This paper assesses if and how a substitution of tiger products by jaguar products is already reported in the literature as well as aims to identify related future research questions. The method is a systematic literature review implemented in scientific databases (esp. Web of Science, Scopus) as well as in grey literature (Google Scholar,etc.). The inclusion and exclusion criteria were carefully selected and the search presented in detail inaccordance with the Prisma 2020 model. Three reviewers were involved in the final selection of records to minimise the risk of bias. The information found has been organized based on literature quality and presented in a common rubric. Limitations of the data are presented as well as limitations of the applied method, particular with regard to grey literature. In summary, the current research project results indicate that there is the need for academic research that focuses on Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) in jaguars and the substitution itself. The wide lack of evidence does not allow the derivation of reliable conclusions whether jaguars are used as substitutes or complements to body parts of tigers while it appears clear that at least one of both happens. Further research questions for future work are also presented.