{"id":31331,"date":"2026-02-24T19:07:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=31331"},"modified":"2026-02-24T19:07:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:07:35","slug":"why-did-72-tigers-die-at-a-thailand-tourist-park-in-under-2-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=31331","title":{"rendered":"Why did 72 tigers die at a Thailand tourist park in under 2 weeks?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">The deaths of 72 captive tigers at a private park popular with tourists in northern <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Thailand<\/span> have renewed scrutiny of a lucrative industry that campaigners warn treats wild animals as \u201centertainment\u201d.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The outbreak at Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai began in early February, with authorities initially attributing the deaths to canine distemper \u2013 a virus carried by dogs but often fatal to big cats. A deeper investigation is under way, with some medical experts suspecting contaminated food may have been the cause.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The park \u2013 a favourite with foreign visitors from China, India and Russia, especially \u2013 promotes itself as offering a rare chance to take photos and interact up close with tigers and their cubs.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">It follows a business model seen across Thailand\u2019s tourist areas, but one that has also courted controversy for breeding wild animals only to confine them for their entire lives in cages, brought out for Instagrammable moments costing visitors upwards of US$30.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-1qeofuq e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-0 e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A tourist takes a photo with a captive tiger at Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai. Photo: Instagram\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/02\/24\/c274e0b2-e242-41af-83a2-e457b6dad21d_2c9af2b9.jpg\" title=\"A tourist takes a photo with a captive tiger at Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai. Photo: Instagram\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1ixmelf e1gf69pb1\">A tourist takes a photo with a captive tiger at Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai. Photo: Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThis tragedy highlights the extreme vulnerability of captive wildlife facilities to infectious disease,\u201d the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand said in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/health-environment\/article\/3344470\/why-did-72-tigers-die-thailand-tourist-park-under-2-weeks?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The deaths of 72 captive tigers at a private park popular with tourists in northern Thailand have renewed scrutiny of a lucrative industry that campaigners&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4840],"tags":[8727,1677,1745,13549,5021,362],"class_list":["post-31331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-globetrotting","tag-die","tag-park","tag-thailand","tag-tigers","tag-tourist","tag-weeks","wpcat-4840-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}