SIBERIAN TIGERS

A very endangered species
And Humans Primarily
Are the threat beyond all others
And really hold the key
To whether this great animal
Can survive it’s vast domain
Living on China’s doorstep
It casts a wide refrain

Its threat is Traditional Medicine
Their bones for tiger cake
Poaching and the Black Market
The authentic unlike the fake
Wild Tigers roaming
Up to 1000 km alone
ecologically unbroken country
And this is widely known

Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krais
The Russian Far East
SIKOTE ALIN mountains
Where you might find this beast
But it’s very existence
Into perpetuity
Is dependent Very much on China
Therein it’s adversity

I mean it’s undeniable
The quantities now used
Wild tiger bones are the bees knees
Which is why they are abused
Tigers the world over
Know the threat is there
The price tag is now through the roof
As is lasting despair

Every part of the tiger
Has its place in the healing, and
The bones get pride of place
Which is hard to understand
HuguJiu or tiger bone wine
Banned in 1993
A switch was made to South Africa
And Canned Hunting LIONS
And adversity

Exported to Vietnam
And processed there to make
Using tortoise shell and monkey
And lion ground up as TIGER CAKE
And so vast numbers of Lions are killed
Farmers stopped growing fruit
An farmed Lions Blood they spilled
Gallons of it in this racket
The cnning Of the Chinese Who were not aware

So Wild Tigers are at a premium
Price
With habitat loss
At the end of the day
Farming and buildings
And logging is meant
Conflict for the Tiger
Who was heaven sent

The tiger apothecary
Is highly prized
From it’s eyeballs to its penis
It’s whiskers to its brains
It’s razored claws
And massive canines
By ingesting the beast
Then it underlines

It’s vigour it’s strength
It’s amazing life force
Even it’s feces
And fur !
Is a source
Of wonder and healing
Reverence and awe
Surrounds this great creature
Perhaps for evermore.

Panthera Tigris mates all
Of the year
When she is ready
She scratches and pee’s
on a tree then
for 5 or 6 days they will be
Staying together it seems Constantly
Then the gestation 3 months
Or so and that the life cycle
And the cubs wil then grow

They are mighty big
With a Much bigger head
Lighter fur than the others
But that being said
Immensely rare
At the end of the day
And when they are the predator
Wolves stay away

They like to eat Musk Deer
Wapiti and Boar
Hares Rabbits Pika’s
And Salmon and more
Bears on the menu
And Lynx sometimes too
But Not as predation
Just a frightener who
In unlikely to frequent
The territory
So it’s elimination
Sensorially

The Tungusic people
Show them respect
Even as a deity
They will elect
The tiger
and other Indigenous do
Hold the Brave tiger
In illustrious view

CITES an end to farming
We hear
This amazing animal
Brings some to cheer
But the poachers now need
Sentences that include death
To succeed