South Africa has become the world's largest exporter of big cats and their body parts, with a thriving yet poorly regulated industry enabling illegal trade, according to a new report by global animal welfare organisation Four Paws. More than 3,500 live big cats and 34,000 body parts were exported from South Africa over the past two decades, revealed the report based on data from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Between 2018 and 2024, at least 30 incidents of illegal trade and trafficking of big cats - including lions, tigers, and leopards, along with their derivatives - were recorded, allegedly originating from South Africa, according to CITES. Focusing on tigers alone, analyses showed that between 2000 and 2018, parts and products of at least 2,359 tigers were seized in 1,142 incidents across 32 countries and territories, the report noted. Despite available figures, the precise number of big cats and their traded body parts exported from South Africa remains unknown due to a lack of data, regulation, and authorities’ failure to record how many tigers are held, bred, killed, traded, or transferred within their jurisdiction.