When I lived in Chicago we had coyotes, which only came out at night. Chicago animal control was smart enough not to kill or capture them and just had a campaign telling people not to feed them. They became one of the more effective means of rat control, especially in the downtown area.
But now that I live in the sticks we don’t have any. We have foxes instead. Apparently foxes and coyotes don’t like each other in their territory, so you tend to only get one or the other.
Ice Swimmersays
A macabre sight. The rest of it is so decayed but the teeth are bright white.
These two were killed by some asshole, then tossed over the muddy creek bridge. The remains were complete, the skulls were still connected to the spinal cord, and there was still some ligament and fur on the feet. I wasn’t in a position at the time to bring the remains home, but I wish I had.
rqsays
Teeth generally decay a lot slower and can remain bright white for several years in all kinds of conditions. The soft tissue remaining makes them look almost mummified, do you have any idea about how old the remains were?
rq, not very old, somewhere in the realm of 2 to 6 months. It was probably a fairly short time, because there was still snow on the ground, and food was in short supply, so two coyote corpses would have provided a great deal of feasting. Around here, the insects hit fast on any type of corpse, outdoors or no. It’s astonishing how fast they can strip a body.
They weren’t young coyotes, if you look carefully, you can see tooth damage and wear. Like everyone else, they were probably half starving, it had been a hard winter, when someone killed them.
rqsays
In the top photo you can see the bottom canine is broken, so yeah, not young animals.
It’s astonishing how fast they can strip a body.
My bachelor’s thesis was on forensic entomology. “Fast” is an understatement.
That it is. I don’t even have words for it. Cleanest strip you’ll ever see, too. There’s nothing quite as exquisite, bone-wise, as one that’s been insect stripped.
When I lived in Chicago we had coyotes, which only came out at night. Chicago animal control was smart enough not to kill or capture them and just had a campaign telling people not to feed them. They became one of the more effective means of rat control, especially in the downtown area.
But now that I live in the sticks we don’t have any. We have foxes instead. Apparently foxes and coyotes don’t like each other in their territory, so you tend to only get one or the other.
A macabre sight. The rest of it is so decayed but the teeth are bright white.
These two were killed by some asshole, then tossed over the muddy creek bridge. The remains were complete, the skulls were still connected to the spinal cord, and there was still some ligament and fur on the feet. I wasn’t in a position at the time to bring the remains home, but I wish I had.
Teeth generally decay a lot slower and can remain bright white for several years in all kinds of conditions. The soft tissue remaining makes them look almost mummified, do you have any idea about how old the remains were?
rq, not very old, somewhere in the realm of 2 to 6 months. It was probably a fairly short time, because there was still snow on the ground, and food was in short supply, so two coyote corpses would have provided a great deal of feasting. Around here, the insects hit fast on any type of corpse, outdoors or no. It’s astonishing how fast they can strip a body.
They weren’t young coyotes, if you look carefully, you can see tooth damage and wear. Like everyone else, they were probably half starving, it had been a hard winter, when someone killed them.
In the top photo you can see the bottom canine is broken, so yeah, not young animals.
My bachelor’s thesis was on forensic entomology. “Fast” is an understatement.
rq:
That it is. I don’t even have words for it. Cleanest strip you’ll ever see, too. There’s nothing quite as exquisite, bone-wise, as one that’s been insect stripped.