Yes, THAT pelt is once again in the news!
It seems that yet another biologist has aired his doubts over its authenticity as a Tasmanian Tiger skin, according to a San Diego newspaper.
UCSD 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 its owner, Bill Warren.
“Even if this identification is correct, this is a threatened species, and the pelt might be valuable if it can be sold legally.”
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has denied Warren a permit to send the skin to a Sydney auction house. The department denied his request 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.
Readers of this blog will already know our opinion of the skin and what has transpired thus far.
Stay tuned!
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