On World Tiger Day, we’re releasing a new briefing on tiger trade, with a focus on captive breeding, a problem replicated across several countries, and a persistent enabler of illegal trade. Combining trade data with policy and regulation evaluation, our briefing shows why this issue matters, where the gaps lie, and the opportunities that exist to close them.
By Sarah Stoner, Intelligence Lead at Go Insight | 29 July 2026
More tigers exist in captive facilities today than in the wild, and the true global total is currently unknown. An estimated 8,900 tigers are held in captivity across East and Southeast Asia alone, against roughly 3,140 remaining in the wild globally. Beyond Asia, significant captive populations exist in the United States and South Africa, where comprehensive national counts don’t exist, meaning the true scale of tiger captivity worldwide is undercounted. Most captive facilities operate legally, under international rules that permit breeding for conservation purposes. But in some cases, captive-bred animals or their parts end up in illegal markets.
Drawing on 25 years of data
The briefing builds on Go Insight’s wider analysis of the illegal trade in Asian big cats, originally prepared to inform discussions at CITES CoP20 in November 2025. That dataset spans 6,430 reported trade records (CITES trade and illegal incidents) across 147 countries since 2000.
This tiger-specific briefing offers a focused, accessible look at tiger trade, including a commodity-level analysis and a closer examination of the role of captive breeding.
A concentrated problem
The data also shows just 17 countries account for 93% of recorded illegal trade incidents, reinforcing the case for concentrating efforts and monitoring resources where they’ll have the greatest impact.
A closer look at an old problem
Tigers remain one of the most heavily trafficked big cat species, and captive breeding sits at an uncomfortable intersection: legally permitted under CITES for conservation purposes, yet repeatedly linked to the laundering of animals and derivatives into illegal trade. Our latest briefing, Tiger Conservation Status and Trade: The Role of Captive Breeding, examines how that gap persists and where progress is being made.
Three countries, three different pictures
The briefing profiles three very different regulatory approaches. Thailand, home to Southeast Asia’s largest captive tiger population, has introduced meaningful legal prohibitions but still faces gaps in how non-native species are licensed and monitored. The United States’ Big Cat Public Safety Act is one of the most comprehensive national frameworks, though welfare groups have flagged exemptions that leave some facilities under-regulated. South Africa: despite being the world’s largest non-range State exporter of live tigers, as of 2023 it has no commercial captive breeding facilities registered with the CITES Secretariat, meaning independent oversight may be challenging.
What’s changed since CoP20
The briefing also reflects two key developments from CITES CoP20 (late 2025). Decision 20.189 gives Parties a framework for assessing the conservation value of facilities breeding or housing tigers and phasing out those that don’t meet it, though as a newly adopted Decision, its impact will depend on how effectively Parties put it into practice. Separately, Resolution Conf. 12.5 (Rev. CoP20) establishes a new independent reporting mechanism to support the Convention’s decision-making on the trade in Asian big cats more broadly.
Why this analysis is valuable
Our approach combines quantitative trade analysis (what’s being traded, where, and how much) with a close reading of the regulatory frameworks meant to govern it (what the rules say, and how well they’re actually being applied). That combination lets us contextualise trade patterns against the policies meant to prevent them, illustrating not just what’s happening, but why the gaps exist and where they’re most exploitable.
The briefing is available on CatByte, Go Insight’s dedicated big cat trade intelligence platform.