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Moar fun with skulls (CAUTION!! GRAPHIC!!)

Zombiegirl

Zombiegirl

New member
Another weekend day spent cleaning skulls. This time we cleaned a spotted skunk, marten, otter and kit fox. My beetles are going to be so happy to have all of these heads to nom on lol...if beetles can be "happy" :rolleyes:

Otter side view


Otter top view with mandible


Spotted skunk side view (so tiny and cute!)


Marten side view


Marten and skunk top view and mandibles


Kit fox side view


Kit fox top view and mandible
 
The upper canines on the kit fox are interesting, they are clear at the tips. Also found a bunch of cheat grass lodged in his ear canals...couldn't have been comfortable, poor little guy.
 
I LOVE SKULLS! I acquired a small colony of dermestid beetles this past spring. I fed them well on all sorts of carcasses and I now have enough beetles to clear a skinned, dry bear head in a little under 48 hours; brain case and all! They do beautiful work and if I time it just right they leave the bones articulated for me. I made jewelry out of some of the tiny skulls and others I incorporated into wooden boxes and such. Every skeleton is unique and beautiful. I can't wait for spring when I can start feeding them heavily again.

Terri
 
Nice! I have a fairly small colony, started out with 1000 not sure what the number is now. It's taken them a few days to work on the bobcat. I'm tempted to order another colony and make mine larger (I would get them from the same guy I bought the first batch from) to see if they could work a bit quicker. If I may ask, what time frame do you leave them in for and still have the bones "articulated"? I've a few small things I want to do this with but don't want to leave it in too long.
 
I did a few sacrificial anoles to get the timing down. A lot depends on temps, their last big meal, how dry the meat is and how many adults are in the mix. Younger beetles do less damage to ligaments because their mouths aren't as large. I don't have an exact time. It's more of a feel thing. I check after 24 hours and usually a hatchling corn would be stripped of flesh and ready to degrease and whiten.
From the pics, it seems like you clean your skulls of most of the meat beforehand. I don't even bother with that in the summer when the eating can be done outside (smell issue). It's addictive. My husband had to put his foot down about collecting roadkill when we go for our daily hikes. lol

Terri
 
I have an insulated room in my garage so smell isn't an issue :) I do clean a good bit of the meat off so it doesn't take them quite as long
 
Those look great! I, too, have been pondering the skull thing. I just ordered 50+ skulls of 15 species or so for my Vertebrate Zoology class but I'd love to start doing it myself and letting the class help with roadkill collection.

Any good beetle sources?
 
Thanks! I bought my beetles from http://www.bonesandbugs.com/. Ken is SUPER nice and answers any questions you may have. They do come out of Alaska. They arrived healthy and happy and have been fun to watch work. I would recommend him to anyone looking for a colony. He also offers different sizes of colonies which was something I was looking for as I didn't want to order a huge amount right out of the gate.
 
Ken is the man for beetles. The tough thing about buying them for just anybody is the infected colony issues. I don't want or need phorid fly larvae mixed in with my beetles. Ken's stuff is clean and healthy. The fact that he is located in Alaska made no real difference in my transactions with him. I highly recommend him if you want to start a colony of cadaver cleaners.

Terri
 
this is SUCH a cool hobby/practice! Id love to get into something like this but i dont think my neighbors or 70 year old lady landlord would appreciate it very much, haha! oh well. maybe someday...

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chelzzer said:
this is SUCH a cool hobby/practice! Id love to get into something like this but i dont think my neighbors or 70 year old lady landlord would appreciate it very much, haha! oh well. maybe someday...

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LOL!! I live right next to an elementary school, so a few weeks ago when I brought home a coyote from the interstate, I was more than worried that the children, parents, and teachers would see me skinning it. It wasn't pretty. Blood everywhere. It was my first time skinning anything bigger than a snake. It was a disaster.

Over all though, she turned out better than expected. Though I DID end up stretching the skin and fleshing it out in front of the children and neighbors.
 
Yes I keep them fed even when I don't have bones in there with them. I feed them hotdogs, jerky, etc. They're not a HUGE fan of hotdogs but they will eat them. I have been keeping busy on my weekends prepping skulls for them though so they will be fat and happy on dead meat for a while lol.
 
I think the reason they don't favor hotdogs is because they like their flesh dry; unlike maggots who enjoy a wet sloppy mess. It would be a fun exercise to offer them a desiccated hot dog and a fresh one and see which they prefer. The in-between work meals don't need to be huge or fancy. They need to be just enough to keep the colony from picking up stakes and moving on or starving if they have no escape. You can slow the whole process down by adjusting the temps as well.

Terri
 
AliCat37 said:
LOL!! I live right next to an elementary school
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Michelle, when I saw this for some reason I imagined the next sentence to be 'so I have a lot of things to practice on'. Then I was curious if there had been any recent disappearances in your neighborhood...
 
They actually prefer "fresh" hotdog to the more dry (have tried that :)) at least mine do. Nanci: I am going to be working on something similar. Not carving stuff out of bone (which is neat) but carving stuff into bone :)
 
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