As the world slips into a darker chapter for one of its most majestic creatures, authorities report that on average nine tigers are being seized every month, a grim marker of a trafficking crisis that refuses to slow. Over the past five years the tale has grown steadily more dire. Recent data from the wildlife-trade monitor network TRAFFIC lays bare the full extent of the danger facing wild tigers.
Once counted among the tens of thousands, wild tiger numbers have now fallen precipitously. A century ago some 100,000 tigers roamed the earth. Now estimates put their numbers at a mere 3,700–5,500.
Even though nearly fifty years have passed under international protection efforts, the illegal tiger trade has not just persisted, it has evolved. TRAFFIC’s latest findings show a marked shift: seizures are no longer limited to parts like skins or bones. Increasingly, entire tigers, sometimes alive, sometimes dead, are being confiscated. Experts attribute this shift in part to so-called captive-breeding facilities, but they warn it could also reflect tigers being seized shortly after poaching or before being dismembered. Others suggest rising demand for exotic pets or trophies for taxidermy could be fueling the surge.
Between 2000 and mid-2025, law-enforcement agencies recorded 2,551 separate seizures, involving at least 3,808 tigers. But the trend in the last five years is particularly alarming. From 2020 to June 2025 alone, authorities reported 765 seizures, amounting to the equivalent of 573 tigers. That works out to about nine big cats seized each month over 66 months. The worst single years in this span were 2019, which saw 141 seizures, and 2023 with 139.
While countries that still harbour wild tiger populations, including India, China, Indonesia and Vietnam, account for the majority of seizures, nations far removed from tiger-territory are not immune. Countries like United States, Mexico and United Kingdom also report significant activity linked to illicit tiger trade.
The changing face of tiger-trafficking brings troubling new dimensions. In earlier decades, seizures were dominated by tiger parts, as much as 90 percent of confiscated items. Since 2020 that figure has dropped to around 60 percent. In its place, the seizure of whole carcasses and even live tigers has shot up. In countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Russia, more than 40 percent of recent confiscations involved whole animals.
Perhaps most chilling is the pattern of what conservationists call “species convergence”. Nearly one in five tiger-trafficking incidents now also involves other endangered species , most often leopards, bears and pangolins. This signals a disturbing trend: wildlife traffickers are broadening their net.
The markets driving this illegal trade vary sharply across different regions. In the United States and Mexico, tigers are increasingly being trafficked as exotic pets. In Europe the demand leans more toward derivatives, turtle goods in traditional medicines, or taxidermy specimens prized for decoration. In many parts of Asia, tigers are still hunted and sold for fashion, traditional medicine, claws, bones and skins, and sometimes whole dead animals fetch a high price.
Authorities warn that seizure is just the opening move: it’s far more important to trace and dismantle organised crime networks operating across borders. Only robust international cooperation, intelligence-driven enforcement and long-term commitment can hope to break the chains that keep this brutal trade alive.
Conservation leaders argue that the rise in whole-animal trafficking underscores a darker reality: captive-breeding operations may be feeding this underground economy, keeping the supply of both live and dead tigers flowing. As one director at a global wildlife charity warned, without urgent and comprehensive action we could soon wake up to a world where wild tigers are nothing but memories. If we fail this moment, the roar of the tiger, once ruling vast forests and jungles, may fade forever.