PARIS (AP) — French authorities say they seized three stuffed lions, three leopards and a giant crocodile head from a private home and turned them over to Paris' natural history museum.

Customs officials are calling it one of the most remarkable seizures of protected species in recent years in France.

The specimens were brought back from an African hunt in the 1980s and stored in a home near the eastern city of Besancon along with dozens of other animals that the homeowner's late father had killed and preserved.

Customs agents seized the specimens after a tipoff last year. Even dead, the animals are protected by the Washington Convention on trade in endangered animals. They were handed over to the museum Tuesday.

"These animals are of a great beauty, rarity and quality," said Helene Crocquevieille, the head of the French customs office.

She noted that these were only a fraction of the dozens or hundreds of seizures of protected species made by the French customs office annually — often the horns of rhinos or elephants that are poached and ground up as an ingredient in quack remedies.

"This trade is becoming more profitable alongside that of arms and drugs," Crocquevieille said.

The hunter's son was assessed an undisclosed fine.