I suspect it was one of Shortland Street’s greatest ever characters, Dr Luke Durville that was responsible for making the practice of taxidermy a popular hobby across the land and because of that, a lot of attention has been placed on various Trade Me listings in recent months.

You may have read our post on cat skins being allowed to be listed on the site and wondered, what other taxidermy is allowed?

The short version is that taxidermy animals are allowed to be listed on Trade Me subject to the protections offered to animals under New Zealand law. And now we’ll attempt to explain that...

Birds are a fairly popular item to subject to the art of taxidermy so let’s talk about them first. Trade Me’s rule is that no alive or dead birds indigenous to New Zealand may be listed. We consider that a species is indigenous to New Zealand if it occurs here naturally.

To spell it out, you can’t list a stuffed Kiwi on Trade Me! (We got your back Kevin).

The Wildlife Act 1953 says these animals are fair game (I see what you did there – Ed) 'Cat, Cattle, Dog, Ferret, Hedgehog, Mouse, Polecat, Possum, Rat, Sheep, Stoat, Wallaby, and Weasel' - so those kinds of stuffed animals are OK on the site.

Our banned and restricted list explains that “You may not list any endangered species, protected wildlife, sports fish, game…” That includes animals whether they are alive or dead and thus such animals cannot be sold as taxidermies. So no stuffed polar bears, marlins or giant panda...

All listings on Trade Me need to respect the CITES convention.

One of the key things to think about is that if an animal is destined to end up as a rug on Trade Me, it must have been dispatched humanely. We’ve no rules on what humanely means but we do suggest the Animal Welfare Act is borne in mind.

We understand this area can be a bit complicated and not every situation will be black and white as to whether something can be listed. On those occasions, judgement calls will need to be made by Trade Me and respected by our members.

Creative Commons image used courtesy Sarah-Rose on Flickr.

The word on stuffed birds and other creatures