00:00A family in London kept the mounted head tucked beneath a bed unaware of its significance.
00:06It was bought to Auctionium after news spread of another thylacine head sold by the same auction house in August.
00:14The Bristol-based auctioneer says the latest specimen has a short history attached to it,
00:20offering researchers clues about how it travelled from Tasmania to Britain.
00:25My name is Andrew Stowe and I'm auctioneer here at Auctionium Ltd.
00:29This is an incredibly rare piece of natural history.
00:32This is the head of a thylacine, better known as a Tasmanian tiger.
00:36The last one died in captivity in 1936 and they are actually officially listed as extinct in the 80s.
00:43We sold one of these a few months ago, identified, misidentified as a Victorian fox
00:49and the headlines went around the world and we're really excited to have discovered another.
00:54The previous one was actually the second known thylacine taxidermy head in existence and this one is the third.
01:02We've affectionately called him Trevor and he's coming up for auction on November the 26th.
01:08This one's actually been authenticated by the wonderful Dr. Sligholm at the International Thylacine Specimen Database.
01:14It's officially listed as the third known thylacine taxidermy head on the database right now
01:20and it's just a wonderful and rare object.
01:23Really important to natural history, really important to science and really important to history in general.
01:30The animal commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger was a carnivorous marsupial
01:35and the last known individual died in captivity in 1936.
01:40Auctioneum says the head is believed to have been shot in Tasmania around 1900 and brought to Britain in 1905.
01:49Radiographs confirm the skull remains inside the mount, although part of the cranium is missing.
01:55Thylacine expert Dr. Stephen Sligholm authenticated the specimen
01:59and added it to the International Thylacine Specimen Database.
02:03It's described as the third known taxidermy head of the extinct species.
02:07A few weeks after we sold the previous taxidermy head, we actually had a phone call come through
02:13with somebody saying that they believed that they had another.
02:15At first, we didn't quite believe them because the chances of finding another I thought were very slim, slim to
02:21nil.
02:21They sent pictures and immediately I went, that looks like a thylacine.
02:25So they brought it on in.
02:26It had actually been hidden under their bed for many years, wrapped in just a single sheet of bubble wrap.
02:31They brought it in, popped it on my desk and we unwrapped it and I genuinely couldn't believe that I
02:36was face to face
02:37with another one of these incredible creatures.
02:40Trevor, as we've affectionately started calling him, is coming up for auction on November the 26th
02:45and we're expecting interest from all over the world.
02:47The head, nicknamed Trevor by auction house staff,
02:50is expected to sell for between £30,000 and £50,000 on the 26th of November.
02:57The head, nicknamed Trevor by auction house staff,
