Brown-cheeked Hornbill Skull for sale on ebay

[streatham]

Or at least someone claiming that they are selling one. Is this legal in the US - being an expat I'm not up on the legality of this? Unfortunately there is only 20 mins to go on this item. This is a near-threatened species according to Birdlife International.

Luke

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7212457400&category=22702

[cuckooroller]

Luke,
Who knows! Off the top of my head I would say that this is probably regarded as a scientific specimen and I am sure that the laws regulating such commerce is different from that regarding live birds, and eggs etc. A bird so rare that there are no known photos of live birds and is in fact the only Ceratogymna for which I don't have at least one photo.

[Hidde Bruinsma]

Luke and Steve,

The specimen shown is, strictly spoken, not of a Brown cheek. It's of the White-thighed Hornbill, which indeed is still treated by every author as a subspecies of the Brown cheek but they all agree it should better be seperated as a full species considering the morphological differences. The White thigh is a common species occuring over a large area in West and Central Africa. The Brown cheek is a much rarer bird with a relatively small distribution. So, Steve, you may have a photograph of this bird in your archive after all.

[streatham]

Hi Steve and Hidde,

Thanks for the info etc. Steve I have done a little more research and there seems to be complex regulations around the importation, selling etc of these items in the US. I am going to do some more digging - covered by various acts. As I didn't know anything about the Brown-cheeked it shocked me when I searched Birdlifes website and found out the species is in their near threatened and possibly being moved into their threatened catagory. The fact that hunting seems to be one of the reasons for the decline of the Brown-cheeked made me wonder where this specimen came from?

Luke

[cuckooroller]

Luke and Steve,

The specimen shown is, strictly spoken, not of a Brown cheek. It's of the White-thighed Hornbill, which indeed is still treated by every author as a subspecies of the Brown cheek but they all agree it should better be seperated as a full species considering the morphological differences. The White thigh is a common species occuring over a large area in West and Central Africa. The Brown cheek is a much rarer bird with a relatively small distribution. So, Steve, you may have a photograph of this bird in your archive after all.

Hi Hidde,

You're right. I honestly did not bother to check the bill shape against any books as this type of photo holds little interest for me. My DB (unfortunately) was set up years ago using the Sibley-Monroe, which does split it. I have several of albotibialis. What I really lack is the species (or race) cylindricus, of which I have never seen any photos at all.

[lark o'dell]

hi
looked at the link iv the bird skull
how do we know it was unted or what it could have just been found on the floor but still it could have been killed but its unlikly cos they would have kept it and used it to be ornimant. thats a guess by the way.
oh well
thats my views
cya

[mcnulty]

The Brown cheek hornbill is just the tip of the iceberg. Check out:
"Endangered on ebay" in the conservation area

mcnulty