I confess that I am addicted to the bazaars here and often go just to enjoy the activity, have a tea, and smoke shisha. Lately, it seems like the amount of wildlife or wildlife products have been increasing and it is starting to depress me. It is routine to see Ibex horns taken from the Red Sea hills but I have come to accept this as a by-product of Bedouin subsistence hunting. There are usually some Slender Horned Gazelle horns as well and maybe a Barbary Sheep skull now and again. Again, I just figured these to be inevitable given the presence of Bedouin camps in some of these areas.
My depression over the undoubtedly common poaching of the above animals has been overwhelmed lately due to a few incidents. Recently there was the hide from a female leopard for sale and yesterday another unforuntately younger specimin. Then a couple of weeks ago there was a man selling lion paws. Of course, the last Sinai Leopard or Barbary Lion were killed long ago so I assume these are coming up from Chad or Sudan. Stunned, yesterday I saw something I never imagined viewing tagged with a price (even here). The same shop with the lion paws had a complete (and freshly tanned) Tiger skin. What's worse is the animal was small enough to be certainly under a year old.
Now for the really bad news. The prices for which these animals above are being sold, of course, clearly understate what people would be willing to pay for conservation. The Leopard hides were priced (before any haggling would have taken place) at $200 US and the Tiger hide was $1500. I suspect a real price to be paid for either would have been about half of this or less.

Maybe those of you with more experience in viewing aspects of the illegal wildlife trade, law enforecement, or just plain third world experience can let me in on just how common this sort of thing is for various species that we usually deem untouchable in the west.

Best,

JohnTheGreek

John,

That is very disturbing, especially the fact it is so easily displayed in public. I am sure a lot of that goes on here but in much more secretive ways. Someone posted an article on another forum concerning illegal animal trade across the Mexican border.

I take it Egypt does not have any sort of wildlife law enforcement agency?

I have been to markets in Northern Burma (aka Myanmar) where there were numerous stalls selling leopard skins, pizzles, bladder and other assorted bits.

They also had pizzles claimed to be from Tigers.

They do not allow you to photograph their stalls, but I did film from a distance.

Every second stall sells firearms as the region is a war zone with about twenty civil war factions and warlords. Many involved in the heroin trade.

I have seen quite a few things for sale in Mexico, which could not be sold legally here in the US, and "assume" it is legal there. Sea turtle and crocodile skins in particular, stuffed primates, and lots of live tropical birds, parrots, and others. I once had a guy offer to sell me a jaguar skin for $400. You can not bring them into the US. If the customs/border patrol sees them they will take them from you as well as such items as swichblades, more than one bottle of whiskey, etc. JTG, do you know if it is legal to sell the items you saw for sale, or does the local law enforcement just choose to ignore it? Myself being completely ignorant of Egyptian law, it may be legal.

RBHunt

My experience with Law Enforcement in North Africa and Middle East is that a few gifts or informal administrative fees goes a long way.

Cheers,
/ JOHAN