Mexican authorities have found a tiger cub in a plastic container, due to be express mailed to another address.

The Office for Environmental Protection on Wednesday found the Bengal cub when a sniffer dog looking for contraband detected it in the plastic container, sedated.

(Mexican Federal Police/Twitter (Mexican Federal Police/Twitter)

The cub was found in the package filled with newspaper clippings, in the western state of Jalisco, due to be shipped to an address in the central state of Queretaro.

The cub was dehydrated but otherwise well, and was handed over to an animal management centre.

The Mexican agency seized the cub on the grounds that mailing it was animal mistreatment.

(Mexican Federal Police/Twitter (Mexican Federal Police/Twitter)

The papers for its registry were present and correct.

The investigation into the incident is ongoing.