Dead specimens of non-native organisms?

[sandboa]

I know the issue of whether to mark non-native organisms as wild has been talked to death here, but I recently came across a derivative question I haven’t seen discussed.

If you follow the principle that free roaming / growing organisms that are not in cultivation / captivity should be marked as “Wild” as a description of their state rather their origin, what do you do about dead organisms?

If you find a non-native plant dug up and thrown on the side of the road, can I can safely assume it probably wasn’t growing there and say that the plant wasn’t wild? People often dump the bodies of dead pets out in the woods, etc… Since those animals were never really wild, they shouldn’t be marked as wild.

So should we err on the side of caution when identifying dead non-native organisms before assessing them as “Wild”?

It seems a difficult call.

Here’s the record that make me think about this - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9522462
A lizard that is obviously originally captive but found dead in the wild. Was it ever wild?

[tiwane]

Very sad. I used to work with a Savannah Monitor for outreach and education, they’re wonderful animals.

I think in this case there’s no evidence it was ever living on its own so I would mark it captive, but it’s a bit of a gray area. The good thing is that anyone can vote, and anyone who is interested in the data point can see the discussions and votes and decide on their own as well.