The Last Stand
In the mountainous expanse of Nam Et-Phou Louey National Park, the Indochinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti) has reached the edge of existence. A comprehensive five-year camera trap survey published in 2019 revealed the stark reality: the breeding population of tigers within this 5,959 square kilometer protected area has collapsed. Researchers documented a sharp decline over just a decade. In the early 2000s, estimates suggested a population of at least seven to 23 individuals. By 2013, camera traps could only identify two remaining tigers. After 2013, no tigers were detected at all, leading scientists to conclude the population is now functionally extinct in Laos.
This demise was not silent. It was documented by hundreds of heat-and-motion-sensitive cameras positioned to capture images of rare animals. These camera traps allow researchers to identify individual tigers by their unique stripe patterns, which function like a fingerprint. The final images of the last two known tigers were captured in 2013, and they have not been seen since. This disappearance was the end of what was considered the last viable tiger population in Laos, and likely in all of Indochina, a region that also includes Cambodia and Vietnam, where tigers are also now considered extinct. The Indochinese leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) vanished even earlier, with the last photographic evidence from the park dating to 2004.