#dead animal

I’m acquiring a reputation for being the ‘dead animal’ person. Today my boss came into work and said she saw a dead bird in front of her car, and that I should take care of it. This juvenile robin probably struck our big glass windows and died immediately. Now he’s resting under a pretty thistle bush out back.

Dead animal warning!

My dog and I found this headless mallard in the gutter in our neighborhood the other day. Aside from the blood puddle underneath it there was no mess, no feathers or anything in the street, an the head was nowhere to be found.

The more I think about it the less I’m able to convince myself that it was a traffic accident or a predation kill. What animal would just take the head? And no roadkill that I’ve ever seen has a neat decapitation with no mess in the road at all.

Which leads me to the unpleasant conclusion that there’s a sociopath in my neighborhood???? I hope not. If anyone has any other theories I’d love to hear them. Also I was sad to just leave him there but I didn’t know what else to do, put him up on someone’s lawn?? Argh.

Horse (Equus caballus) partially cleaned by me.  It’s not as white as I like to get my skulls, but it was cleaned of soft tissue via compost pile and then went through a flood.  I did my best as far as the whitening process goes, but this is as white as this skull is getting for the time being.  To be honest, I do sometimes like skulls looking  bit more “natural” like this.

What I like about this horse is that it was an old animal.  The teeth are very worn, after a lifetime of use.  It also has a few pathologies, which I find fascinating.  This animal clearly had dental problems, as is evident by the gaping cavity in one of the premolars (photographed above), and bone degradation around all the teeth.