Tiger bone wine – just the thing to wash down a meal of passenger pigeon pâté and baby seal veal cutlets.

Chinese authorities has ordered a probe into reported sale of tiger bone wine in Beijing and northern China and vowed to punish anyone trading in endangered animals or their products.

The action followed a report in Britain’s The Sunday Telegraph that undercover investigators had been offered the chance to buy wine made from the crushed bones of tigers at Qinhuangdao wildlife rescue centre in Hebei province and Badlan safari park in Beijing, state media today said.