The UK’s Natural History Museum has been targeted by thieves after an unusual prize: tropical bird skins.

It is not clear exactly when or how the bird remains were removed. Some reports say a branch of the museum in Tring was burglarised in June but the removal of nearly 300 skins was apparently not noticed for over a month. There are also suggestions the birds could have been stolen in batches by someone with legitimate reasons to access the collection.

“The birds that were stolen formed part of the nation’s natural history collection, painstakingly assembled over the last 350 years,” says Richard Lane, Director of Science at the Museum (press release). “It is very distressing that we should have been deliberately targeted in this manner.”

Those responsible for the crime are unlikely to have been motivated by the skins’ potential use in biodiversity, evolution or anatomy research. Speculation as to their purpose involves breaking up the specimens for use in jewellery, clothing or fly-fishing lures.

Let us hope the miscreants behind this outrage are swiftly caught and spend some time doing bird.

Anyone offered some dodgy bird skins should call Detective Inspector Fraser Wylie on 0845 33 00 222, citing crime reference number D3/09/450.

Image: Natural History Museum