I knew you guys and gals would love it!! :eek1:
Back story (I'll
try to keep it short).
There's a lady that teaches Biology courses at a local university who also teaches an evening water aerobics class that meets at the high school pool I coach at. Every season she reminds me that she would love to get a snake if I ever had one that passed away, etc. because she has some type (can't recall genus species) of carrion or flesh eating beetle in her lab that she uses often for this type of work. They apparently really love reptile flesh. Anyway, two years ago, she did a deer head for me, but I just never had a deceased corn (of size, non feeding hatchlings are probably too small for her) that I could pass on to her. Well fast forward, I had this adult Snow female that began developing a cyst/tumor in her abdomen area. It did not appear to affect her health, feeding, or her breeding before it was noticed, but I did start to notice that it was slowly getting larger. So I euthenized and passed it on to her last Spring. I never expected to see it again. She did notify me that the cyst/tumor was "stinky" and pretty gross, but she forgot to get pictures of that.
Anyway, fast forward to this past December when our new swim season began . . . she brought me what you see above! Told me I could have her back as her students were done working with her!! How cool is that?! I can only imagine the man-hours her students put into this crazy jigsaw puzzle. AND, she even told me they dropped it once and had to start over! Each rib is glued, and there's a few layers of lacquer. She did indicate that the bottom jaw did not survive the beetles for whatever reason.
Brent, did you do that? I have always wanted to try and “deflesh” a snake and make some kind of display for my desk.
Hope that all answered your question! I'd recommend seeing if there's a local university that could get it done for you. I think you can buy the beetles online as well. I'd have to get the name from her again. I remember looking once upon a time and they weren't cheap.
D80