Tasmanian tiger pelt might be African antelope
By Carl Ciaramella
Originally published February 11, 2011 at 6:19 p.m., updated February 14, 2011 at 11:47 a.m.
Fallbrook resident Bill Warren believes he may have a valuable animal pelt belonging to the now-extinct Tasmanian tiger, but a SDSU biology professor says it’s more likely the skin of an African antelope.
Warren said he bought the unusual looking animal skin at a garage sale in Rainbow in June for $5. After a couple weeks of Internet sleuthing, he became convinced it was a Tasmanian tiger.
The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, was a dog-like marsupial carnivore native to Tasmania. Due to hunting and loss of habitat, the tiger was declared extinct in 1936, when the last known animal died in captivity.
Most of the known skins reside in museums and universities. All of which makes a pelt worth upward of $60,000 to private collectors.
But whether Warren’s skin is actually a thylacine is unclear. SDSU biology professor J. David Archibald inspected the pelt last Wednesday and wrote in an e-mail that it appeared to be a zebra duiker, a small African antelope.
“While I cannot make any definitive assessment other than the pelt is genuine, I lean toward it being a zebra duiker based on the cumulative evidence,” Archibald wrote in the e-mail provided by Warren. “Even if this identification is correct, this is a threatened species, and the pelt might be valuable if it can be sold legally.”
However, he wrote that one of his colleagues in Sydney believed the pelt was indeed a thylacine.
Warren wants to send it to the Australian auction house, which would pay for expensive DNA testing that would conclusively determine the species, but he can’t.
Although there haven’t been any confirmed sightings of the animal in more than 70 years, it’s still listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, and Warren must obtain a special permit to sell or ship the pelt over state lines.
The department denied his request for a permit because he couldn’t prove the species of the pelt. It also questioned the age of the pelt, saying it looked too new to belong to the long-dead species.
Warren appears to be caught in a catch-22 because he can’t ship the pelt to Australia for testing without the permit, but he can’t get the permit without proving the pelt is genuine. He’s been pressing the department for the past four months.
“I told them I’m flat broke and need to sell it,” Warren said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife service did not return calls seeking comment.
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