Thailand is a key pipeline in a lucrative global trade that animal activists warn risks spreading zoonotic diseases and erasing biodiversity
4-MIN READ4-MINAidan JonesPublished: 12:00pm, 3 May 2026In India, cuddly and colourful animals are paraded across Instagram, Facebook and YouTube channels, where free advice is shared on how to raise a lemur – or what to feed an iguana – in congested megacities far from forest habitats.Cuteness has become a commodity in Asia’s social media world, with Thailand’s main airport emerging as a reluctant hub for wild animal smuggling.On Wednesday, a 19-year-old passenger bound for Taipei tried to evade security at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport with dozens of fist-sized tortoises strapped to her body.
A day earlier, hundreds of live turtles and bright blue-green iguanas, along with a freshwater crocodile, were all seized on arrival in Bangkok from the Indian city of Bengaluru.
There were raccoons in a box meant for check-in by an Indian woman on April 18. A few days before that, it was chameleons and a pair of endangered gibbons – also destined for India.
One of the raccoons had already died in the nearly airless container by the time airport authorities detected the box.
