IN PHOTOS: ROAR POWER

There are now close to 3,890 wild tigers but despite international and domestic trade bans, tigers are still being poached for their body parts. Learn more.

Tigers are symbolic of progress, strength, courage and luck.

As large predators, tigers play a key role in maintaining healthy ecosystems.

Tigers are usually solitary by nature but play-wrestling has been observed in the wild.

Tiger cubs remain dependent on their mother for food until around 18 months old.

Tiger stripes are like human fingerprints. No two tigers have the same pattern of stripes.

One of 16 tiger cubs saved from the illegal wildlife trade receives a health check. The cubs were being smuggled across the border from Thailand into Laos, two cubs per crate in the back of a truck. The young tigers were probably reared on an illegal tiger farm in Thailand and destined for China.

The illegal trade in tiger parts and products is centred in Asia and demand is driven by middle-class and wealthy consumers. Tiger parts are used for an array of purposes – ranging from trophies and garments to Traditional Asian Medicine, for tonics and folk medicines, as well as for their meat.

Tiger farms are often used to lure tourists. There are more than 200 tiger farms still operating across Asia. Up 8,000 tigers are held captive in squalid conditions.

The Kanchanaburi tiger temple was shut down in 2016. Authorities made the grisly discovery that the temple had been breeding the tigers en masse to be sold into the illegal wildlife trade.