#bobcat skeleton

Degreasing the bobcat has been the bane of my existence but this before and after speaks for itself! Finally pulled the toe bones out of degreasing after 10ish months and they’ve come a long way from when I first got them. Now I’m just waiting on the leg bones and carpals/tarsals to finish up before finally being able to start articulating.

It feels good to have a productive work table going! Finally started drilling on the bobcat with the first focus on the spine. The tentacles were wonderful to help decide on how to position everything and I’m going to attempt to add epoxy cartilage between each vertebra.

The foot on the right side is from a young coyote leg I found years ago and finally got around to articulating. It’s nearly identical in size to the bobcat’s feet so it was great practice and it will be a lovely addition to the foot collection!

Practicing the posing on my bobcat and his prey with some real life references! 

Some close-ups of the bobcat skeleton! He’s all bagged up now and waiting for me to finally pull out the new rotary tool and have some fun.

A beautiful anatomically correct bobcat skeleton!

Getting the bobcat paw bones together! Front (top) and rear (bottom), left and right respectively. I’m putting in a lot of research to get these together as accurately as possible since good references are so difficult to find. I believe this is as accurate as I can get without having cleaned the skeleton myself so I’m calling it done and moving onto the next step!

Edit: Damn, just noticed the largest phalange on the right rear foot is placed wrong. It should be switched with the second largest one on the left of it!

I’m finally getting the bobcat laid out and have run into some questionable parts. The first photo shows the collection of parts in question: tail vertebrae with a possible extra piece since it doesn’t fit into the flow of the rest, possible carpals/tarsals and extra toe bones, all matched up toe bones with a mismatch pair, and the claws matched up as closely as possible.

The second photo shows a closeup of the possible carpals and tarsals. All references I’ve been able to find show that there are 7 carpals and 6 tarsals for bobcats and I’ve successfully identified those ones. I believe pair #3 could be carpals located near the dew claw but I only found one image that can support that theory.

The third photo shows the sternum bones with an oddly-shaped piece I haven’t seen in any other images of feline or canine sternum bones. I’ve also looked at feline x-rays but still didn’t see a similar-shaped piece.

The extra pieces are throwing me off but I’m not surprised since I also found a small brown claw sheath when I received the skeleton. I’m sure multiple skeletons were cleaned in the same beetle tank and the seller accidentally picked up some remnants of other creatures when bagging this guy up.

If anyone recognizes these bits please feel free to send me a message! 

Bag-O Bobcat

Bobcat claws are all clean and back together! All but three arrived with the sheaths and bone attached so I taped down the sheaths as they were placed in the first photo while the bones were being cleaned. This helped me keep track of which bone went to which sheath once everything was cleaned. 

These are the last processing photos for this skeleton. It’s a great feeling to have gone through this lengthy cleaning process and finally finish with a beautiful skeleton. The next step will be sorting the skeleton’s right and left, front and back parts for articulation!

After a year my picture taking hasn’t improved but the bobcat definitely has! Finally calling it done on degreasing the final bones to this skeleton. You’d think this was a pig or bear because of how long it’s taken, but it was likely just inconsistent heating and periods of forgetfulness with some over-thoroughness. He was a very greasy boy to begin with though! Now it’s time to get official articulating supplies together and finish this project.