Some 300,000 items made from wildlife are being sold through a special online auction that began Feb. 22, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeks to reduce costs for storing and maintaining forfeited and abandoned wildlife property at its National Wildlife Property Repository in Denver. The sale will clear space for newly obtained wildlife property and support conservation education and other activities benefitting wildlife.

The sale is being conducted under contract by a private auction company based in Austin, Texas. The company will offer items both individually and in lots of varying size and content over a period of several months. No items will be sold for immediate export. Auction merchandise consists primarily of snake and lizard-skin clothing, shoes, boots, and accessories. Jewelry, home décor items, and other manufactured products made from seashells and coral will also be sold.

The items being auctioned, all legal to sell, have been carefully selected from the more than 1.5 million wildlife parts and products stored at the repository. They do not include any products made from threatened and endangered species, migratory birds, eagles, marine mammals, species listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), or species that cannot be sold or traded under the laws of the exporting country. No hunting trophies or wildlife parts will be sold.

For more information on the agency's work and the people who make it happen, visit www.fws.gov.