Stripped for parts: Vietnamese poachers target last of Malaysia’s wild tigers

Poachers use commercial fishing fleets to smuggle what remains of Malaysia’s wild tiger population out of the country, a new report finds

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A Malayan tiger is seen in its enclosure at a zoo in Cincinnati, the United States. Photo: AP

Published: 2:50pm, 29 Jan 2025Updated: 3:15pm, 29 Jan 2025

Commercial fishing fleets have been playing a key role in trafficking parts of tigers poached in Malaysia, according to research released on Wednesday.

The fishing boats are part of a network of routes used by teams of poachers to move parts of illegally killed Malayan Tigers and other poached animals to Vietnam, according to the study by conservation organisations Panthera and ZSL in conjunction with Malaysia’s Sunway University.

Through interviews with more than four dozen people involved in the operations, including poachers and those who brokered sales of the illicit goods, researchers found that fishing boats were able to carry larger consignments, cheaper and less likely to be checked by customs than land or air routes.

Vietnamese-owned fishing vessels that are registered to a Malaysian company are seen docked at a Malaysian port in this undated handout photograph. Photo: Panthera/Sunway University via AP

“To really crack a problem and insert the right intervention that’s going to have any impact you have to understand the thing inside out,” said Panthera’s Rob Pickles, the lead author of the study, in a phone interview from Kuala Lumpur.

“That’s what we hope that this study does – contribute to that depth of understanding of the problem to allow us to tailor the interventions.”

From a population estimated at some 3,000 tigers in the middle of the 20th century, the latest estimates are that there are only about 150 of the cats left in Malaysia and they have already gone extinct in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam over the last 25 years.

In addition to poaching, tigers have lost much of their habitat to deforestation, and they have been falling victim in recent years to the canine distemper virus while a major source of food, the wild boar, has been decimated by the African swine fever virus.

“It’s their last gasp,” Pickles said. “This is the last chance to turn things around.”