Table 1 Breakdown of coding themes by frequency

Equipment

 Heat-vision goggles

16

“Access to roads is how people kill tigers. They drive around at night until they see a tiger.”

 Spotlights

14

“We spotlight tigers from the road and night and shoot from the truck”

 Camera trap

2

“Camera traps are used to learn the movements of the tigers.”

 GPS

5

“A local buyer will pay us for the GPS coordinates of tiger tracks if we come across them when hunting in the taiga.”

Poaching process

 Use of roads

34

“Logging roads make the taiga more accessible, hunting is much easier.”

 Mention of winter

7

“Most tigers are killed in the winter. Poaching is easier then.”

Motivation for poaching total:

 Broken down into:

31

Elite “thrill” killing

5

“I have poached about ten tigers in my hunting career. I have two sons in the FSB. So, who will stop me?”

 Poverty

19

“Unemployment drives poaching—there are no jobs here. You can get 350,000 rubles (~ $4800) for a tiger. Such money will sustain you for a long time.”

 Human/tiger conflict

7

“I sold the bones of one tiger after I killed it for attacking my dog. I got $4000 for it.”

Theme

 Corruption, in general

 Specific mention of FSB

 Specific mention of police

 Specific mention of government

27

21

20

14

“Yes, the government and police know about the tiger poaching—of course. The people up top are getting money from this. If I weren’t talking to people in the government, I wouldn’t be able to be a buyer.”

 Chinese involvement in trade

33

“The Chinese have hidden compartments in their vehicles to smuggle goods over the border.”

 2013 change in law

6

“The changing of the laws (in 2013) has affected buyers more, there are fewer now. Maybe about half as many.”

 Rifle used to kill tiger

14

“No one uses snares. It is opportunistic killing from the road with a rifle.”

 Necessity of hunting license to carry a rifle

8

“Poachers will get a license to hunt any type of legal game because you have to have a hunting license to legally carry a firearm.”

 Importance of connections/trust within network

11

“People who know people kill tigers. Everything depends on a person’s connections.”

 Transporting tiger products

19

“There was an instance where a tiger was killed and the carcass was found in a logging truck, buried under the logs.”

Reference to supply chain stages:

 Poacher to local buyer

 Local buyer to regional buyer

 Ussuriysk

 Regional buyer to Chinese border

24

19

21

17

“There are 3–4 Chinese buyers in Ussuryisk. They will hire smugglers to cross the border. Russians never cross the border, only Chinese do.”

Reference to tiger products:

 Skins (not in demand)

 Bones

 Canines

 Claws

 Whiskers

 Entire carcass

16

26

17

14

3

14

“Bones are in demand. Things like leg joints, knee caps, canines, tail joints, head parts, claws. No ribs. No skins either—those are burned in the forest. If they (poachers) had a way to sell it, they would. But there is no demand now.”

Musk deer poaching^a

15

“Musk deer are absolutely poached, it’s a money game. One set of glands is worth 30,000 rubles (~ $400). Most regions you can’t even get a license for musk deer, so hunters just shoot whenever they see one.”