how long ago did the porcupine die?

My dad and I went back to lime kiln trail a week ago. we walked for a while, exploring new parts of the forest and saw 3 woodpeckers (either downy or harry woodpeckers). we also found  a gartersnake (which I got to hold).




As we where walking along some burnt trees, my dad spotted something. At first I didn't believe him, because we hadn't seen anything yet and i was surrounded by mosquitoes and flies (which doesn't help).  but when I got to where he was, I saw it. A porcupine skull with the spine. I could tell it was a rodent because of the orange  front teeth. it was too big to be a muskrat, and too small to be a beaver. (neither the muskrat or the beaver would be in the middle of the forest anyway). When we got home I did some research (to make sure I was right) and it was definitively a porcupine. Here it is with the other bones:

and of underneath the skull

at first my dad and i thought it might have died during the fire, of smoke inhalation.  but with the help of my aunt and cousin, i have concluded that the porcupine probably died before the fire. this is  the main reason why:

when we found it, there where no limbs. that means that another animal carried them away. If the porcupine had died in the fire, there would be no flesh left, hence the bones being burnt. and if there was nothing left but bones, carnivores would not take the limbs.

the fire was 2 about 2 months ago, meaning this porcupine died at least 2 months ago.

another example of the limbs being carried away from the body is my deer leg bones i found a couple weeks ago.We found the limbs, but no body.

i am really happy i have this skull, because it is the first skull we found. (with no flesh)

burned bones

Last weekend, my dad and I went to Lime Kiln trail in search for bones.We walked for about fifteen minutes, finding nothing. Eventually we got to ruins of this old building (there are a lot on this trail) and we started walking off trail. After a while we saw a meadow and decided to check it out.  We were rewarded with nice deer leg bones; a femur (thigh bone), a patella (kneecap) and possibly a tibia (shin bone). We started to look around to find the rest of the body. My guess as to why the leg was separated is because carnivores often carry the limbs away. After  a couple of minutes, my dad found mandibles. I'm pretty sure they are deer, because of the lack of teeth in the front of the jaw and  the teeth are from a herbivore. Unfortunately they were green, probably from the moisture in the spot that we found them... I was worried it wouldn't come off, but we took them home anyway. He also found a couple of thoratic (mid back) deer vertebrae ( presumably the same animal) around the same area.

We didn't  find anything else, so we decided to head back towards where we found the deer leg bones, and started looking on the opposite side. I found about 4-5 more deer bones and antlers (probably moose, because of the shape and size) but we did not take it because of the extensive damage.

As soon as I got home, I put the jaws, a couple small bones and one of the patellas in peroxide.After a day or two I checked on them and the jaws where still very green, I waited one more day and they had not changed. So, I  decided it would be best if I didn't keep the green bones, but instead kept only the teeth. After I took the rest of the bones out of the peroxide,I  noticed something; they had some brown and black marks on them. I thought it was just dirt, so I tried to rub it off, but with no success. After they dried I realized that these bones had been through a fire: they were burnt. Last month here was  a forest fire in this area, and that is why the bones are burnt.

some old cans and other metal objects found in the forest

The Beginning

This blog is not for the faint of heart, since it is about my animal bone collection. I will write about how I clean my bones, where I find them and other things related to my collection.

My passion for bone collecting started while on a family road trip to Yellowstone National Park. I wanted to get an animal skull so bad!  On our way home, while driving on i94, my mom, who driving at the time, stopped because she saw a skeleton in the ditch.  

My dad went to see if there was a skull and if it was in a good condition. After a few seconds he called us and my mom and I went to join him. What we saw surprised us... there where 2 skeletons and coyote or fox dens all around us! We opted not to stay very long, although there was much to see. We checked the 2 skulls that where there, 1 pronghorn: was damaged, and the other: a deer, still had rotting skin on it. We could not bring it in our car since we still had a long way to drive and the skull would only make our car smell really bad.  Before we left I was able to take 2 horns that used belonged to the pronghorn.  After that moment, I was hooked.