My biggest predator skull

Soooooo! Actually I wanted to write about my python stuff and some experience I had with pythons, but not today. I promised you an entry about my biggest predator skull - and besides that reason I was too busy to write about the python anyway. It’s easier to write about one big thing than a lot of different stuff, you know ;)
But enough of the blabla, under the cut you will find more information about my baby!

The mystery is solved: It's a polar bear skull!

At first I didn’t want to buy a polar bear skull, it just happened! Years ago I saw a picture of a big polar bear skull in front of a human skull. The view of these two skulls was amazing, because the polar bear was a real giant! It was stunning! I sent this picture to a Canadian who sells stuff like those skulls and asked him, if he had such big polar bear skulls as well.

Size comparison: Polar bear versus red fox.

The answer was chastening: No. Not one as big like the one on the photo. But he had a big deal for me, a real snip! Well, I was all ears. He had a polar bear skull on offer, but a smaller one with a few small teeth missing. And if I took it right away, he would pay the shipping and the CITES costs. I only had to pay for the skull which wasn’t that expensive at all!
A real snip, in fact.

Nice little jaws... Too bad that I don't know if it was a male or a female.

But why was the seller so generous? Because at the time there were hearings that it should be forbidden to deal with any polar bear parts worldwide. So it was no wonder that the seller wanted to get rid off his polar bear stuff. Thus we got all the paperwork done in a hurry.
Unfortunately, or lucky for me, the hearing ended with no forbiddance. Of course, I was sad about this. The polar bear is an endangered animal and in urgent need of our protection! But I was also happy that I got this beautiful skull in a legal way. But somehow I still felt guilty. The only solace: the polar bear was killed by Inuit people.

About 34cm long and 22cm wide. What a big animal!

Well, even though I own this giant skull now I’m still for the protection of this beautiful mammal.
And, no joke, I still have a bigger and much heavier skull in my collection and it’s no polar bear (and no cow or horse)! But what kind of animal it is will be a surprise until I write about it ;)