Strange things happen all the time at airports, but this piece of news takes the cake. How on earth did this woman think she could get away with hiding a tiger cub inside a suitcase going from Thailand to Iran?

Just a few days ago, on August 22nd, an oversized bag that had been checked in by a 31-year old Thai woman at Bangkok’s international airport was sent for an X-ray, where it was discovered to contain a tranquilized two-month old tiger. How exactly did the woman try to conceal her smuggling attempt? Ms. Genius hid the tiger cub next to a stuffed toy tiger — too bad the bag also contained bones.

Disturbingly, this incident is far from being the first of its kind. This Bangkok airport (The Suvarnabhumi International Airport) is a major hotspot for wildlife trafficking — according to the U.S. Agency for International Development, traffickers attempted to ship more than 1,000 snakes and turtles through it last year alone! Wildlife conservationists cry out for harsher penalties and for more action to be taken by the government against international trafficking, but one can only hope that governments will take note.

And how is the poor cub doing now? He was sent to the Wildlife Health Unit at the Department of National Parks’ Wildlife and Plant Conservation Center in Bangkok shortly after being discovered and appears to be much better now after some emergency care and close monitoring. Whew. It would have been highly unlikely for the tiger to survive four or five hours of travel stuck in that suitcase, so it’s great news that this already endangered species won’t lose another member of the family.

Sources: Wired and Yahoo! News