"Many species have been pushed to the edge and if things don't change they will be extinct in the next few years," said David Shepard of Traffic, a non-governmental organization monitoring the trade. "Animals like the pangolin could disappear before we know anything about them."
Conservationists are hoping Thailand's crackdown could start to curb the trade. Raids are targeting not just traders' homes but also the zoos and farms owned by businessmen whose connections had helped to fend off suspicions they were fronts for illegal trading.
Last week police moved in on Si Racha tiger farm, ranked among the biggest in the world, which supplies live tigers to China. Police said they found several hundred animals that owners could not properly account for.
Thailand's Environment Minister now says he will seek harsher penalties for smuggling exotic species and one senior official this month called for the death penalty for animal traffickers.
Skeptics fear the crackdown will be short-lived.
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