Every year, hundreds of tourists pay about $20,000 to be able to shoot lions in an enclosure. This is called canned hunting.

With tigers on the brink of extinction, dead lion bones are increasingly used as a substitute in Asian markets as some believe they can cure illnesses.

Some are now afraid lions are being bred just for their bones and that the appetite for lion bones will lead to them being poached in the wild, the same way endangered rhinos have been hunted.

There is no scientific proof tiger and lion bones have any medicinal benefits.

Al Jazeera's Tania Page reports from South Africa.