Customs officials arrested a Chinese driver when they found the frozen paws in his bus's tools compartment, the agency said.

The paws of the endangered Himalaya bear are regarded as a delicacy in traditional Chinese cooking and the bear's bile is used in traditional medicine.

In the last survey carried out in the 1990s, just 1,500 Himalaya bears were found to be living in the Khasan district of the Maritime region, bordering North Korea. The number of bears now surviving is unknown.

Last year, border guards seized 210 bear's paws that smugglers were attempting to pass into China and rescued 18 live bears from smugglers.

Ecology activists have called for tougher penalties for illegal hunting and for a census of endangered species.

Poachers have shot at least eight rare Fareastern leopards in the past two years, leaving fewer than 35 alive, according to ITAR-TASS.

The Fareastern leopard survives only in the Khasan district, and Yury Darman, regional director of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature told the agency the only way to save the species from extinction would be to set up a panther national park.

SPACE.WIRE