Or anyone else that can answer this for that matter.

What is the requirement for capes to leave Australia? Do you have to do the whole dip and pack thing for "raw" capes like those coming from Africa? OR must they leave already tanned?

No problem getting skins out,it is when you enter another country any problems will being.

I have taken raw Foxes skins out

Yeah like TP says - skins from Australia (or Africa for that matter) do not have to be treated in particular way (except salted and dried) - it is the requirements of the destination country that must be met. Many (most) countries will ask for a vet certificate but that is not always the case. Some countries like NZ will just take the hides and irradiate them, sometimes even if you have the vet cert. Other countries will take them and burn them if they arent happy with them!!

There are also differences between accompanying the products yourself (as baggage) or sending them via a third party (air freight or whatever) as with airfreight you cannot give a verbal explanation at the point of destination - verything must be clearly stated in the documents.

Depends also on the specie of animal - some require extra documentation aside from the regular export certificate. CITES documents and protected fauna permits are an example...

Cheers
Matt

Thanks Matt and TP.

My chital skin and head was signed over to the Port Agricultural Authorities at Auckland Airport upon arrival , for treatment. Apparently there was a tick on the skin that got them excited so the hide was subjected to two different treatments.

Hide and heads arrived home via courier within a week.

This is pretty standard for skins and the like . My skin was double salted and well airdried , and the two heads were boiled and bleached , which seemed to be acceptable here.

Was the tick dead?

I think it is now . Why - do you want it ?

Actually - I suspect it was a dead one . The skin had had 3 days of coarse salting , then a day of finer salt , brushed off and hung to dry.

And then when I got to my mates place in Gympie I had hung the skin out to dry in the sun some more - so I think the tick was likely just stuck on still.

Its funny how the quarantine guys get worked up. When I came back from Timor the AQIS guys went through our stuff. They'd give the army fella's a hard time but I missed it all as my SGT and I had to process 4 dogs that came back with us. When I finally got back to airmovements
to be inspected we were cutting it a bit close to our planes departure. So we were pretty much just waved through....until I opened my glasses case and a bug crawled out should of seen the eye of the AQIS fella bug out. I just said "Oh" and crushed it with my thumb