People don’t seem to get that just because an animal is listed by IUCN as least concern doesn’t mean it always will be, if that country has zero regulations on collecting said animal there’s a good chance that animal won’t always be LC.

Esp regarding anything being imported from Indonesia where a lot of these mass-harvested animal parts for the oddities community come from, recommend reading through 3.1 here regarding Indonesia’s very limited wildlife protection laws (here’s a snippet); https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329580428_Comparison_of_Wildlife_Protection_Law_between_Indonesia_and_the_United_States/fulltext/5c106f1792851c39ebe6b36a/Comparison-of-Wildlife-Protection-Law-between-Indonesia-and-the-United-States.pdf?origin=publication_detail

It’s why I reallyyyyyy press people on not buying from sellers that import from China and Indonesia. That’s not saying that either of these countries are bad but there is very little protection from over-harvesting wildlife and buying from them is contributing to that.

As long as there is a market and profit to be made, the wildlife trade will keeping being fueled. It’s why sustainability should be prioritized when it comes to collecting.

Also just some examples of animal parts that are often imported from China/Indo; Bats, tanuki, farmed crocodiles (I am guilty of having one of these before I knew better), dogs/cats, red fox-

(Note that obv a few of these like the cats/dogs/foxes can be sourced within the states, and tanuki can be sourced in EU too, usually weirdly yellow greasy skulls are my red flag for imported).

If someone is selling mummies of Indonesian wildlife (they’ll call it taxidermy, but they’re mummies), high chance of being imported. Also see anything flattened and packaged like this? Imported.

Example of what some imported bones might look like (sometimes they’re well cleaned though). That “grey fox” is also a tanuki. Lots of tanuki skulls being mislabeled as foxes all the time.

I also have no fucking idea how they’re processing these bats because at no point have any of the skulls I’ve cleaned ever looked that disgustingly yellow.

Also if you’re ever interested in purchasing from someone and not sure if there’s any red flags on sourcing, feel free to 1) ask me 2) ask the seller. I usually have a decent gauge on spotting importers.

There’s a good chance a seller that imports is going to lie up the wall to you though.

But if you get a response like I got from the person I’m purchasing some African bird skulls from, it’s usually a good sign; https://twitter.com/BarghestBlack/status/1345583071488311301

Or in my case I can tell you how my skulls I sell were sourced, a lot come from my job as a taxidermist so most of these are hunted animals but I get the raw skulls for free so money isn’t being exchanged with hunters, and these byproducts are salvaged. >

I also buy from depredation/invasive control within the states (I.e. coyotes/red eared sliders), or salvage byproducts of other industries (farming, hunting/trapping, etc.) where these parts otherwise go to waste. And I will tell you up front if you ask, if it’s not something >

you personally agree with (I.e. hunting) then you have the choice to pass on it which is 100% okay. But what’s important is that you have the knowledge of origin of that specimen and can make a choice based on your personal ethics.

If I’m buying from someone for my own collection and I feel a little skeptical of sourcing, than I ask. Yes a seller can lie but once you get a good grasp of this industry it’s usually pretty easy to weed those people out.

then*

I just want to beat this into people’s heads to not take “ethically sourced” at face value. It literally means nothing at this point and is now a marketing term.

If someone plopping those two words onto their sales posting is all that convinces you to buy from them w/o second thought, really take some time to reflect on that.

Anyway that’s all on that, just try to be a conscious shopper especially when dealing with things like animals/animal parts. Regulations and protections widely vary from country to country. Always keep sustainability in mind.