Wildlife authorities on Thursday confiscated two tiger skins and hundreds of tiger-skin talismans found on a pickup truck trying to sneak out of the Tiger Temple.
The vehicle with two temple workers and a monk on board was ordered by staff of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation to pull over as it was leaving the compound.
The staff found the two tiger skins and hundreds of takrud nang sua inside. A temple worker said a monk at Wat Pa Luang Ta Mahabua had ordered them to move the items from his living quarters. He refused to say where they were headed.
The attempt was made despite tight security put in place by wildlife officials, soldiers and police around the compound in Sai Yok district of Kanchanaburi. The entire temple is off-limits to outsiders as 137 live tigers are moved to the Khao Son and Khao Prathap Chang wildlife breeding centres in Ratchaburi's Chom Bung district.
There were still 73 cats remaining to be moved out of the temple on Thursday. The task was expected to be completed this week.
The seizure of skins and the talismans came one day after the shocking discovery of the carcasses of 40 tiger cubs in a kitchen freezer, along with jars of animal organs and the body of a bearcat, also a protected species, at the infamous temple.
Officials are carrying out DNA tests on the carcasses to find out whether they match those of the tigers at the temple, to determine if they had been illegally bred.
Department director Tuanjai Noochadamrong said on Thursday that no temple staff had come forward to give more information, or defend the presence of the dead cubs.
More areas inside the temple will be checked for more organs of protected animals, she added.
The temple said on its Facebook page on Wednesday that the dead tigers were not kept for sale on the black market. "We have documented all the deaths from 2010 and have photographic evidence of them still being in the temple," it said.
The department clarified that the temple so far has only been charged with possession of the dead bearcat, which is not on the list of animals kept inside the grounds.
Mrs Tuanjai said the temple could face another charge if the DNA tests of the carcasses found that the dead cubs were not related to the 137 live felines.
If found guilty, the temple and its leaders could face a maximum penalty of four years imprisonment and a fine of 40,000 baht.
Wat Pa Luang Ta Mahabua has been known as the Tiger Temple since 1994, when villagers asked the monks to take care of tigers found injured in the wild, according to its website.
The department later allowed the temple to take care of the tigers.
The number of the tigers in 1994 was not known but the department's records in 2012 showed there were 99 at the time and that that figure had grown to 147 last year. One of them died last year.
The temple is very popular with tourists, but it is suspected by wildlife advocates and authorities of involvement in wildlife trafficking.
The department suspects that animals bred at the temple were smuggled out and sold in the black market, after reports that three of them went missing last year.
