Hanoi zoo to receive eight tigers rescued from Nghe An

The Hanoi Municipal People's Committee recently issued a document agreeing to take care of eight tigers being raised illegally in the Muong Thanh Dien Lam Ecological Area, Dien Chau District, Nghe An Province.

Earlier, seventeen tigers were found being raised in the basements of two families in the central province on August. 

Nine tigers did not survive the rescue process, and the surviving eight were taken in by the ecological park, where they have lived since.

Initial investigations showed that, the tigers were brought to Vietnam from Laos as cubs. The families built the basements specifically to keep the wild animals, which is illegal.

According to the Nghe An Provincial Forest Rangers Department, the tigers will be moved to Hanoi in the coming time. The agency is now keeping them at the Muong Thanh Dien Lam Safari Land.

Indochinese tigers are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List. Their population is threatened by poaching for illegal wildlife trade, as some people believed their bones could be used to make traditional medicine to treat certain ailments.