Rangers from Thailand’s Department of National Parks (DNP) were patrolling the area on Jan. Photo by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Thailand Officials inspect the two confiscated tiger skins. “Based on publicly available information, several factors raise suspicions about the motive being solely one of addressing human-tiger conflict,” Kanitha Krishnasamy, Southeast Asia director of TRAFFIC, an international wildlife trade monitoring group, told Mongabay in an emailed statement. The fact that there are no prior recorded reports of tigers killing cattle in the area, as claimed by the suspects, raises further questions about this latest incident. Poaching is driven by mainly Chinese and Vietnamese demand for skins, bones and other body parts used in tiger-based traditional medicines and decorative curios. Thailand represents the last stronghold of the Indochinese tiger ( Panthera tigris corbetti), the subspecies having been officially declared extinct in neighboring Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam over the past decade due to poaching, habitat loss and indiscriminate snaring. However, experts say the circumstances around the seizure indicate they may have had the additional intention to make money from the carcasses, possibly through the illegal wildlife trade. The farmers said the big cats had been killing cattle, according to local media reports. 8 by local farmers in the park in Kanchanaburi province, in the southern portion of the country’s Western Forest Complex (WEFCOM), a flagship network of protected areas close to Thailand’s border with Myanmar. The two Indochinese tigers ( Panthera tigris corbetti) were killed on Jan. Authorities confiscated the two carcasses and are investigating the incident and possible links to the illegal wildlife trade. Tiger conservationists in Thailand are reeling following the recent killing of two tigers in Thong Pha Phum National Park. 8 comes days before officials from Thailand and other tiger range countries are due to meet to discuss progress toward an ambitious goal set in 2010 to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022. Indochinese tigers have been declared extinct in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in recent years, and while several breeding populations persist in Thailand’s protected area networks, they number no more than 200 individuals.Authorities seized the two tiger carcasses, which had been stripped of their skins and meat, raising suspicions among experts that financial motives, namely selling the tiger parts in the illegal market, may have driven the killing.Authorities in Thailand have arrested five suspects for killing two Indochinese tigers in a protected area in the country’s west the suspects said the tigers had been killing and eating their cattle.