sed Environmental Investigation Agency, 17 out of 29 stores investigated in Tokyo, Yokohama and Kawasaki sold aphrodisiacs and rheumatism remedies made from tiger parts despite a U.N. ban on trade in endangered species. "Tigers are being poached at an alarming rate," said group representative Debbie Banks. She said many of the tigers were believed to come from India, home to 60 percent of the world`s tigers. There are believed to be about 3,000 to 4,700 tigers in the wild today, compared with approximately 100,000 at the beginning of this century. Earlier this year a Japanese television network stirred a hornet`s nest by broadcasting a programme showing three celebrities munching on a meal of braised tiger in Shanghai. The network later apologised after environmental groups and viewers protested. In ancient China, tiger meat was eaten as an elixir for longevity. Banks`s group learned in their survey conducted in August that the shops stocked tiger bone wine and tails as a cure for rheumatism and tiger penis ground into powder as an aphrodisiac. The trade in tiger products has been banned under the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), commonly known as the Washington Convention, and Japan has been a signatory since 1980. But it is one of the world`s leading consumers of tiger products, along with China, South Korea and Taiwan. Banks said her group would notify the CITES authorities in Geneva and ask them to put pressure on the Japanese government to stop the trade in endangered species. Her appeal comes as a rare pet craze rages on in Japan, with pet shops featurng non-native owls, toucans, hawks, Australian wallabies, snakes and rare parrots. Often the novelty wears off and the animals are abandoned or abused. Animal rights advocates have called for a strengthening of Japan`s laws preventing cruelty to animals.