LOS ANGELES (AP) - Customs officers in Los Angeles have seized a vast menagerie of stuffed-and-mounted animals including a wildebeest, a zebra, a gazelle and a baboon.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced and displayed the taxidermy take with an estimated value of nearly $9,000 on Wednesday.
They were seized last month at a port inspection when officers found seven boxes with "animal heads" written on them.
A customs statement says a 44-year-old man from the Philippines was touring the U.S. and got carried away at a Texas liquidator.
The man says he didn't know the mounts had to be declared to the federal wildlife officials and required export permits.
The baboon, a lynx and a bobcat - all full-bodied stuffed mounts - required an additional permit under an international endangered species convention.