iStockphoto / TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP via Getty Images
Stuffed Tasmanian tiger with googly eyes in front of a forest
You never know what you’re going to find when you’re browsing the aisles of an antique store. That was the case with one person who thought they’d stumbled across the taxidermied head of a fox, but they ended up making much more than they paid for it after discovering it was actually an animal that’s been extinct since the 1930s.
Most people are probably aware of the Looney Tunes character known as the Tasmanian Devil, which is loosely based on the actual animals of the same name, which reside on that island off the southern coast of Australia (and do not have the ability to generate a tiny tornado when they spin around).
That island was also once home to a significantly larger species of animal known as the thylacine but commonly referred to as the Tasmanian tiger, which was actually a marsupial that stood approximately two feet tall, measured around three to four feet long, and could weigh upwards of 75 pounds.
It’s believed that around 5,000 of them roamed Tasmania before European settlers made their way to the island in the 1600s, but the population began to decline in the 19th century due to a bounty program that was instituted to protect the livestock they targeted.
The last known member of the species died in captivity at a zoo in Tasmania in 1936, and while there have been hundreds of unconfirmed sightings in the wild, they are considered to be extinct.
There is subsequently a pretty high demand for stuffed specimens, and that was certainly the case with an item that recently hit the auction block in England.
A stuffed head of a Tasmanian tiger that was mistaken for a fox sold for over $80,000
According to the BBC, an auction house in Bristol, England held a sale that featured what was described as an “antique fox head” mounted on a wooden plaque, which was purchased for £50 (~$68) by someone who picked it up at an antique market because they were amused by the googly eyes that were attached to it.
The initial purchase price also served as the starting bid, but it ended up going for much, much more after a natural history collector named James Cranfield took a closer look and realized it was not, in fact, a fox, but rather a Tasmanian tiger (a discovery linked to a close examination of its teeth and the number of incisors it boasted).
Cranfield attempted to keep his find close to the vest, but it would appear other bidders also realized it was something special, as he ultimately bought it for a whopping £62,600 (~$82,000), 125,100% more than the starting price.
The head is believed to be one of just 101 surviving taxidermied specimens in existence, and it will now be on display at the shop of the winning bidder, Cranfield’s Curiosity Cabinet in Essex.