Can Viagra Help Save Tigers?

Pills yucky!

Who would have guessed that an anti-impotency drug used to treat erectile dysfunction (ED) may help save tigers in China?

 

When you do a general search on this topic, you’ll find several articles about a Beijing zoo that used Viagra, in combination with other drugs, to help encourage a pair of rare South China tigers mate.  Apparently, the male tiger did not show interest in mating with his cage mate, so the drug was introduced into his meals to increase his sexual appetite.

 

These articles were written over ten years ago, so we were interested to see if Viagra helped the tigers to mate.  So we searched and searched with no luck as to what happened to the tiger on Viagra. 

 

As it turned out, Viagra was not clinically tested for use with any animals and thus the likelihood that Viagra worked the same for tigers as humans, is virtually null.  In fact, it could be very dangerous to give Viagra to tigers because of the negative side effects such high blood pressure or heart problems.  Second, as you think back to the Viagra commercials, Viagra does not enhance sexual desire, so it would be unlikely that a male tiger will want to mate more often if given the impotency drug—assuming it worked at all!

 

So how can Viagra help save tigers?

 

Well, Chinese traditional medicine practitioners have used parts of rare and powerful animals for millennia. Among the ancient remedies is tiger penis to treat erectile dysfunction.  As the Chinese economy grows, so does its appetite for medicines and luxury goods made or obtained from tigers, lions, and other exotic animals.  Surprisingly, the introduction of Viagra may actually make a dent in the killing of endangered animals because it is easier and cheaper to obtain—not to mention Viagra actually works!

 

Conservationists believe that ED medication may catch on in China because traditional remedies are taught alongside western medicine in the Chinese medical system and are well received. Viagra's popularity may have been influenced by its more affordable price tag as well since the cost of endangered animal parts can be very expense.

 

“We haven't examined this idea empirically, but it's our belief that the rapid and observable effects of Viagra made it particularly likely to be adopted by people who otherwise avoid Western medicines,” said William von Hippel, a psychologist at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Von Hippel was the lead author of an earlier study which examined Viagra's acceptance in the Chinese market. The research was published in Environmental Conservation.
 

Mr. Von Hippel’s research found that older men living in China prefer to use ED medication in place of tiger and seal penis.
 

For tigers, an alternative to ancient Chinese remedies could not come sooner.  In our blog posting titled "A Species Under Threat of Extinction", dated October 27, 2011, six subspecies of tigers continue to persist, but three have gone extinct in the last 80 years.

 

As few as 20 tigers exist in the wild in China and poachers in India, catering to the Chinese market, are chipping away at that country’s tiger populations. Right now about 1,200 tigers survive in India – about half of the population of a decade ago and a fraction of the some 100,000 that existed in the early 20th century.

 

One major drawback to our optimism that consumers would prefer Viagra to exotic wild animal body parts is the high price of products made from endangered species can make them a status symbol. Just as during many other nations' rise to power, the lust for luxury items in China has put elephants, tigers, rhinos, sharks, and other high profile creatures in the hunter's cross-hairs.

 

“There is a lot of cachet in using expensive and exotic treatments, and the same holds for decorations,” von Hippel said. “A $20,000 elephant tusk carving is an object of admiration, but a $50 synthetic one isn't, even thought they might look identical.”

 

The market for endangered exotic animal products may decline in response to the growing environmental movement in China.  Remember at one time, the use of fur in fashion changed because of the growing support against using animal fur as a fashion status symbol.

 

“There appears to be a nascent environmental movement in China,” von Hippel said. “Indeed, I think the Chinese experience is likely to be typical, in that countries focus first on wealth and only after most of the people enter the middle class do they become concerned about environmental issues."

The question is—will there be any tigers left in the wild when people decided that it is no longer “cool” to harvest animals for their parts?

Who Am I?

We have an unusual Who Am I this week!  Yesterday’s posting was about our pampered exotic cats—a fun look at some of the perks our cats enjoy at In-Sync Exotics.  Now the question is—can you name the featured cats in order, to include the lioness at the very end of posting?

Where's my photographer?

 

First person to correctly identify all six cats wins bragging rights and a small prize. Simply send your response to our special animal email account (click HERE for the email address) and if you are the first person to correctly respond to the challenge, you win! You'll need to include your name and address in the email so we can send you the prize! Please do not post your guesses to Facebook or this blog posting comment box as we don’t want to give away the answers. We will announce the winner of this challenge on Friday!  Good luck to you!

We'd like to thank Janis, our blog reader for this story idea! Thank you, Janis!  If you have a blog story idea, please let us know -- we are always looking for interesting stories to share with our readers!

We hope you enjoyed today's blog posting and will join us again tomorrow for more news and updates on our wild ones! Don't forget to let us know your reaction to this posting by clicking on one of the reaction buttons below--and share this blog posting with others please ~ Thank you!
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