Nine tigers seized every month as global trafficking crisis decimates big cat populations, report says

Authorities around the world have seized an average of nine tigers each month for the past five years, highlighting a worsening trafficking crisis that threatens the survival of one of the planet’s most iconic species, according to research published Tuesday.

A new report from wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC warned that criminal networks are evolving faster than conservation efforts can respond. The global population of wild tigers, which a century ago was around 100,000, has now plummeted to an estimated 3,700 to 5,500, he said.

Despite half a century of international protection, TRAFFIC’s findings showed that tiger trafficking is accelerating and increasingly targets whole animals, live or dead. Experts say the change appears to be related to captive breeding operations, but may also reflect the capture of tigers shortly after poaching or before they are dismembered for their parts. Additionally, they could be due to an increase in exotic pet ownership or demand for taxidermy, they say.

The report, the sixth in TRAFFIC’s Skin and Bones series examining the illegal tiger trade, highlights stark trends. Between 2000 and mid-2025, law enforcement agencies around the world recorded 2,551 seizures of at least 3,808 tigers.

In the five years between 2020 and June 2025 alone, authorities made 765 seizures, confiscating the equivalent of 573 tigers, approximately nine a month for 66 months. The worst year was 2019, when 141 seizures were recorded, followed by 139 in 2023.

Most seizures occurred in the 13 countries that have wild tiger populations, led by India, which has the world’s largest tiger population, China, Indonesia and Vietnam. Among countries without tigers, Mexico, the United States and the United Kingdom reported a considerable number of incidents, according to the report. While law enforcement has strengthened, so has commerce.

“This increase reflects improved law enforcement efforts, but also indicates persistent and, in some areas, increasing criminal activity and widespread demand for tigers and their parts,” said Ramacandra Wong, senior wildlife crime analyst and co-author of the report.

TRAFFIC’s latest analysis reveals a dramatic shift: in the 2000s, tiger parts accounted for 90% of seized products, but since 2020 that proportion has fallen to 60%, replaced by a rise in seizures of whole animal carcasses and live tigers. More than 40% of seizures in countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Russia now involve whole tigers.

The report identified entrenched hotspots where interventions should be prioritized: the tiger reserves of India and Bangladesh; the Indonesian region of Aceh; along the Vietnam-Laos border; and Vietnam’s major consumer centers, including its capital, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City.

The report also documents a growing “species convergence”, with nearly one in five tiger trafficking incidents involving other threatened wildlife, most commonly leopards, bears and pangolins.

Consumption patterns vary markedly by geography. In Mexico and the United States, demand tends toward live tigers, often for exotic pets. Europe shows a stronger market for tiger derivatives used in certain traditional medicines and taxidermy for decoration. Earlier this year, Spanish police arrested two people suspected of sale of exotic cats online including protected species such as white tigers and pumas.

Across Asia, demand covers skins, bones, claws and whole dead animals for fashion and traditional medicine.

According to WWF, tiger bones “are used in traditional medicines or boiled to make tiger bone glue or soaked in wine, their skins are used as rugs or clothing, their teeth and claws are made into trinkets and amulets, their meat is consumed, even their whiskers are highly prized in illegal markets.”

The report says investigations should not end at the point of seizure. He said strong international cooperation is crucial, and it is essential to disrupt the organized crime network along the illegal trade chain through intelligence-based multi-agency law enforcement.

Leigh Henry, director of wildlife conservation at the environmental charity WWF, told The News that the rise in whole-animal trafficking underlined the “prominent role of captive tiger breeding facilities in fueling and perpetuating the illegal trade.”

“Illegal trade remains the biggest immediate threat to wild tigers. If we do not urgently increase investment to combat tiger trafficking – at all points in the trade chain – we absolutely face the possibility of a world without wild tigers,” he said.

According to WWF, poachers often set traps in tiger habitats, but “anything can get trapped, including tigers, their prey or other wildlife. One thing is for sure, anything that gets trapped, unless rescued, will suffer a painful and often slow death.”

Heather Sohl of WWF’s World Tiger Program called Tuesday’s report “a wake-up call.”

“The rise in tiger trafficking and the alarming rise in whole animal seizures show that criminal networks are adapting faster than our collective response,” Sohl said in a statement. “We must urgently increase investment to tackle the illegal trade in both captive and wild tigers in countries where tigers occur. Without this, decades of conservation progress risk unraveling.”