Border Patrol Agents Intercept Smugglers and Find 4-Month-Old Tiger Cub in Duffle Bag

Illustration - Vic Hinterlang/Shutterstock

Agents for U.S. Customs and Border Protection are used to seeing all kinds of illicit activity along the U.S.-Mexico border, including the smuggling of people and drugs.

When agent Marshall Maynard and his partner came across three men crossing the border illegally in the Rio Grande Valley area, they were about to make a shocking discovery.

As Border Patrol attempted to intercept them, the three trespassers fled, but they left a black duffel bag behind. Upon inspection of the bag, the border agents, shockingly, found a young Bengal tiger cub curled up inside.

Later, Irma Chapa, Border Patrol communications director, posted some spectacular photos of the catch on Twitter with a caption that read:

“NOT an average day in the field, as Brownsville Border Patrol Agents rescue a tiger! Updates to come.”

Noticing that the cub was unresponsive, the agents took it to the nearby Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas, for treatment. There, head veterinarian Thomas DeMaar found the cub “on death’s doorstep,” Brownsville Herald reported.

“It’s safe to say that had this ordeal gone on for even 30 minutes longer, if he’d been in that duffle bag for another 30 minutes, we would not be having this conversation today; he would’ve been dead,” DeMaar said.

The baby tiger, estimated to be between 3 and 4 months old, was extremely dehydrated and suffering from a fever of 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius). Thanks to DeMaar’s quick action and expertise from working the zoo’s big cats, he and his team were able to bring down the fever.

They still didn’t know if the cub would recover from his brush with death, though. Yet, the little tiger surprised everyone. Just a few days after the cub was rescued by Border Patrol, the zoo tweeted again:

“The tiger cub found at the border in a duffel bag and in poor condition is now under the care of our veterinary staff. Our team acted quickly to stabilize him and he is now doing very well.”

In order to find a rescue organization that had space for him, Porter Zoo kept the tiger cub in their young animal nursery for over six weeks until they were able to connect with In Sync Exotics in the Dallas area. After the recovery period was over, DeMaar proudly announced, “The tiger cub ... has pretty much doubled in weight since it arrived ... He has bounced back from his ordeal.”

While the zoo was sad to say goodbye to the tiger cub, they had used his short stay to help educate visitors about illegal animal trafficking that goes on in their own backyard.

“Sometimes, people don’t even know that these things are prohibited or that they have a serious effect on wildlife conservation,” DeMaar said. “These animals are being extracted from their natural habitat and put in as commercial entity.”

Thankfully, In Sync Exotics specializes in big cat rescues. The sanctuary has several tigers, as well as lions, cougars, cheetahs, bobcats, lynx, servals, and ocelots. The best part for the recovering cub was that once he was out of quarantine, he was introduced to a new playmate, a white tiger named Kylo Ren.

“Having another cub to play, interact, learn and nap with stimulates healthy growth and development, just as it would in the wild,” the sanctuary’s website explained.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, there are more tigers living as pets in the United States than there are living in the wild today. The U.S. government has been cracking down on this illegal trade, yet sadly, the financial incentives can be huge for breeders and smugglers.