A taxidermist who solved the South Canterbury foot mystery says he can understand how it was mistaken as human.
Peter Ritchie said the foot found on Monday near the Rangitata rivermouth, between Ashburton and Timaru, came from a large Alaskan black bear.
"It does look like a human foot, but what they
found was one of the internal foot bones from a back foot of a seven-foot black bear," Mr Ritchie said last night. He said the foot was one of two he gave away for shark bait last Friday.
"As soon as I read about the foot in the paper I knew what it was, so I called the police. I didn't want them to struggle for weeks doing DNA and all that carry-on," he said.
Detective Paul Hayden of Ashburton police said the Christchurch pathologist who first examined the foot believed it was that of a small adult woman. It had now been confirmed as mammalian but not human.
A taxidermist since 1969, Mr Ritchie said he often gave away his "leftovers" to fishermen.
"When these two fellows came in to my shop looking for bait I remembered I had the bear's feet," he said.
"I thought they're fatty, oily and ideal for catching seven-gill sharks."
- NZPA
