- Rare, elusive and little-known to science, two species of striped rabbits are endemic to Southeast Asia: Sumatran striped rabbits from Indonesia and endangered Annamite striped rabbits from the Vietnam-Laos border region.
- Both species are threatened by habitat loss and illegal snaring, despite having protected status in their range countries.
- In recent months, authorities have seized at least 10 live rabbits smuggled from Thailand on commercial flights to India, highlighting the first known instance of these rabbits being trafficked internationally for the pet trade.
- Conservationists say this trend is alarming, given that the two species are on the brink of extinction. They urge range countries to add the two species to CITES Appendix III, the international wildlife trade convention, and to work with Thai authorities to establish a conservation breeding program with the seized rabbits.
In the remote rainforest of Sumatra, Indonesia, and the Annamite Mountains straddling Vietnam and Laos, two species of nocturnal rabbits live elusive lives. These species, both of which have distinctive black stripes coloring their fur, are each known to occur in only a single habitat: the Sumatran striped rabbit (Nesolagus netscheri) is found only in the western and southern parts of the island, and the Annamite striped rabbit (Nesolagus timminsi) saunters the Annamites.
Both species are threatened by disappearing and ever-degraded rainforest habitats, and illegal snaring and poaching, pushing them to the brink of extinction. The IUCN Red List classifies Annamite striped rabbits as endangered and Sumatran striped rabbits as data deficient, meaning scientists do not know how many of them are left in the wild or how well their populations are faring.
In a recent paper published in the journal Oryx, conservationists highlight an additional emerging threat to the species: international smuggling for the pet trade. A spate of recent seizures of live striped rabbits in India, which has seen increasing seizures of exotic wildlife species from across the world, highlights the growing trade in the species. All of the seized individuals came from Thailand, which has a thriving wildlife market.
Indian authorities identified all seized rabbits as the Sumatran species, but the paper’s authors question that claim. The two species, despite having evolved separately for nearly 8 million years, are so similar that scientists have to peer into their DNA to tell them apart, or use a Vernier caliper to measure their skulls. “It’s very difficult to distinguish the species from just looking at it,” co-author K. Yoganand, a wildlife ecologist who has worked in Southeast Asia for more than a decade and follows the global wildlife trade, told Mongabay in a video interview. It’s not clear how the Indian authorities identified the species, or if any genetic analysis was done, he added.
The authors call on Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos to add the two species to CITES, the international treaty on the wildlife trade, and tighten law enforcement to stop their trafficking. They urge these countries to work with Thai authorities to bring back seized individuals and set up a conservation breeding program for the species.
“These species have taken a big hit from habitat loss, and then there is poaching for wild meat trade and the devastating impact from indiscriminate snaring. Now, on top of that, is this demand for keeping them as exotic pets,” Yoganand said. “All of these add up to make them more and more threatened.”
Between April and July 2025, Indian and Thai authorities seized 10 live striped rabbits and a dead individual in five seizures. Four of those seizures were at Indian airports, where customs officials discovered live animals stuffed in the personal luggage of passengers arriving from Thailand, along with other exotic wildlife, such as marsupials from Australia and parrots from Central and South America.
Yoganand said these striped rabbit seizures outside of the range countries are “a new phenomenon” and worrying because the animals are already rare in the wild and fast vanishing. Camera-trap surveys show Annamite striped rabbit populations declined by more than 50% between 2008 and 2018. And despite scant data for Sumatran striped rabbits, Yoganand said they should be considered as endangered or critically endangered, given their rarity, reduction in historical range, and the threats they face.
“What we know about the trade in striped rabbits is likely the tip of the iceberg,” said co-author Andrew Tilker from Re:wild in an email, adding that the actual impact of this trade is underestimated. “It is likely that, in addition to Thailand and India, there are other countries we don’t yet know about.”
Forgotten species hammered by trade
Despite their striking appearance, striped rabbits are little-known. Scientists described the Sumatran species in the 1880s, but only began systematically studying them more than a century later, in the 2010s. The Annamite striped rabbit was described only in 2000, from a dead specimen in a fresh market in Ban Lak Sao, Laos, suggesting their trade isn’t new.
“We’ve seen Annamite striped rabbits often appear in wildlife markets,” Yoganand said. “We know that they’re being caught by hunters, either alive or killed, either by snares or with firearms.”
In recent years, he said, he’s seen reports of young rabbits being sold alive in Vietnam, and on social media in Indonesia as pets. In 2019, scientists described the first juvenile of the Sumatran species from an ad posted on the WhatsApp messaging platform.
Since neither the Sumatran nor the Annamite rabbits are listed on CITES, their international commercial trade is unregulated. But they are protected species in their range countries — meaning that selling or hunting them is illegal.
The study’s authors say the rabbits seized in India were likely initially trafficked to Thailand, and then sent to India. Neither India nor Thailand has laws protecting endangered species that aren’t native or listed on CITES.
Wildlife trade researcher Chris Shepherd, from U.S.-based nonprofit the Center for Biological Diversity, who has studied the trade and trafficking of various Southeast Asian species, called the recent striped rabbit seizures in India “alarming” but “not surprising,” citing India’s concerning imports of many live exotic species.
“It’s really alarming that species that are already rare and so poorly known are showing up in the pet trade,” Shepherd, who wasn’t involved in the recent paper, told Mongabay by video call. “The number of wild-caught species showing up in the pet trade is skyrocketing. It involves a much greater diversity of species than I’ve ever seen before, and I’ve been watching the pet trade for close to 30 years.”
Adding striped rabbits to CITES is crucial, conservationists say
Before the pet trade consumes the few striped rabbits remaining in the wild, the paper’s authors urge Vietnam and Indonesia to list the two species on CITES Appendix III, which includes wildlife protected in at least one country. That way, they can seek cooperation from other CITES parties to help them regulate the trade with additional trade documentation.
Unlike an Appendix I or II listing, which affords tighter regulations on trade but involves years-long bureaucratic processes and voting at CITES meetings, countries can unilaterally add their protected species to Appendix III.
“If Vietnam wants, they could do that in a couple of weeks. Same for Indonesia,” Yoganand said. (All commercial trade in CITES-listed wildlife from Laos has been suspended since November 2023 due to the country’s inadequate laws and poor enforcement against illegal trade.)
“Listing them in Appendix III is a really important step,” Shepherd said. “This would obligate other countries to take action if these animals are showing up without documentation.”
Mongabay contacted authorities in Indonesia and Vietnam, asking them if they’d consider adding striped rabbits to CITES Appendix III, given the recent international seizures. We didn’t receive a response by the time this article was published.
But even without a CITES listing, countries must still proactively devise ways to regulate trade in native and nonnative species, including relying on the more comprehensive and scientific IUCN Red List assessments, Yoganand said. Ideally, trade regulations must be based on “reverse listing”, where trade in some select species is explicitly permitted if they are verified to be sustainable but banned for all others, he added.
All live rabbits seized in India have been returned to their port of origin, in this case Thailand, as part of the protocol India follows for all nonnative wildlife seizures. But Yoganand said it’s not clear what happens to them after they return. Some rabbits, he said, are at a rescue center run by Thailand’s wildlife department, but he’s not sure how long they remain there. Mongabay contacted Thai authorities, asking them how they handle nonnative wildlife repatriated after seizures, but didn’t receive a response by the time of publication.
The authors suggest Vietnam and Indonesia work with Thai authorities to repatriate these animals and to set up captive-breeding programs for the imperiled striped rabbits that would create “insurance populations” if the species go extinct in the wild.
The authors also say Indonesia, Vietnam and Laos, which already have laws to protect striped rabbits, should enforce them. “Enforcement against snaring and other forms of poaching, as well as monitoring and enforcement against online/social-media trade and trafficking are needed,” Yoganand said.
As for India, where wildlife from across the planet are showing up in seizures, he said, “India needs to control its demand for exotic pets.”
Banner image: An Annamite striped rabbit in a breeding facility in Thailand. All recent seizures of striped rabbits in India have originated in Thailand, although the country has no native wild populations. Image by Jokuyken15 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).
Spoorthy Raman is a staff writer at Mongabay, covering all things wild with a special focus on lesser-known wildlife, the wildlife trade, and environmental crime.
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Citations:
Yoganand, K., & Tilker, A. (2025). Emerging trafficking of live striped rabbits driven by demand for exotic pets in India and Thailand. Oryx, 1. doi:10.1017/s0030605325102056
Averianov, A. O., Abramov, A. V., & Tikhonov, A. N. (2000). A new species of Nesolagus (Lagomorpha, Leporidae) from Vietnam with osteological description. Contributions from the Zoological Institute, St. Petersburg, 3. Retrieved from https://www.zin.ru/labs/theriology/publications/zin_nesolagus_2000.pdf
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