Actually, you could argue that one would have to be pretty smart to find these animals and circumnavigate national and international law.

That's an interesting proposal but falsifying scientific records isn't a great idea. Perhaps even worse than censoring information. People are already often distrustful of science and false records would definitely only make things worse. It would also make identifying endangered species more difficult; if you falsely listed a critically endangered species in more areas than it inhabits, you risk that species going unprotected because it is believed to be thriving.

It's a tricky subject to be sure!