Tip for vultures, how to tell if a seller is lying about their products source:
The more popular Vulture Culture gets the more demand there will be for things like skulls and pelts. And more often people are going to try and pass off poached/hunted items as scavenged. Here I will give a few red flags to look out for, as well as some good things to spot and some general tips for buying animal products.
(All photos used are for visuals ONLY. The products shown in the pictures provided are NOT call-outs or examples)
Red Flags:
1. Bulk quantities
If a seller is claiming something to be scavenged from roadkill, and yet is selling in large numbers, be cautious. This isn't ‘always’ an indicator of an untrustworthy seller. I’ve seen 10 raccoons on one stretch of road before. But use common sense, how likely is someone to find and scavenge 10 foxes or 10 crows a week?
2. Unusual color morphs, especially foxes!
If someone has farm fox color morphs (like marble foxes, blue, silver, etc) and tries to pass them off as roadkill they arent even trying. It is possible to buy pelts like this secondhand in antique shops and fur farms arent inherently “unethical”. But just know they almost 100% came from a fur farm at some point.
3. Bones, pelts, and animal products from Asia.
As most vultures are well aware, different countries have different laws regarding sale of animal parts. Be cautious buying from places like China, Uruguay, and Brazil. Animal protection laws in those places may allow for easier poaching and hunting of endangered species as well an unethical treatment of animals in fur farms. This results in large quantities of VERY cheap skulls and furs, however the treatment these animals received as well as the legality of their culling is questionable.
4. Failure or refusal to provide permits
If you are looking into purchasing something that requires a permit or license and the seller refuses to provide the paperwork that is a HUGE red flag. Not only would selling without the paperwork be outright illegal, but the likelihood that they obtained the product legally in the first place is up for debate.
GOOD things to look for
Now ill list a few things that are good indicators of scavenged products.
1. Imperfections
Bones that are old, weathered, cracked, or otherwise imperfect. Bones that have been sitting out in the woods for a while tend to take on a specific look. Quite different from perfectly white bones.
2. juvenile or out of season animals
Hunters typically avoid juvenile animals or animals that have “out of season” fur or plumage. If you see someone selling a pelt of a coyote in its spring coat, or a bird skull with juvenile beak colors its ‘safe-ish’ to assume it wasn’t hunted if the seller says it wasnt. However take this tip with a grain of salt. If it WAS hunted it was likely out of season, and therefor poaching. Use this tip in combination with the others to make a safer guess.
Anyway, sorry this post is really lazily done hopefully this helps some new vultures.
THANK YOU, this is really a good set of rules-of-thumb.
Dishonesty happens in the Vulture Culture community so consider this info before buying.
Don’t lie about your sources either, gang. I know some people think “Oh I’m running a business, the buyer won’t understand my ethical standards so I’ll just say I found it dead.”
Well guess what: it’s when you lie about your source that when people investigate and you have a scandal. (Like in the case of mummified bats and donated humans. Those wouldn’t have been so infuriating if the sellers were honest.)
