Found a skull while hiking.

[BryanP]

Not that kind of skull.  My wife and I went out hiking a little trail near us yesterday.  Ran across this just next to the trail on our way back out.  I'm not sure how unusual it is to find them like this.  I called TWRA this morning and they told me that if it still had flesh on it that I might need a salvage tag, but in this condition it was fine to just haul it home. 

[charby]

Not that unusual to find them, I see the rodents have been hard at work on the G3.

[RoadKingLarry]

Got the makings for some primo knife handles there.

[Chuck Dye]

I was hiking with friends when we came on a magnificent scene:  tracks in the snow clearly showed a coyote tag team pursuit of a buck, ending with the buck's carcass.  All but one of us were all about the scene, pointing at tracks and their features, vocalizing awe, amazement, delight, horror.  The one was  my best friend, who had only one thing to say:

"Dibs the rack!"  

[280plus]

Alas, poor Yoric! 

[Scout26]

That could make a nice European mount.   The gnaw marks on the G3 might detract from it a bit.

But yes, finding deer skulls in wooded areas is not that uncommon.  Everything dies eventually.


Even more fun is hunting for sheds (the antlers that fall off) in late winter/early spring.

[BryanP]

The current plan is to clean it in the best way the internet tells me, and maybe hang it as is on the inside my back yard fence somewhere. Or is there a reason not to do that?

[Scout26]

See the gnaw marks ??

Squirrels.

So unless you want to create a squirrel feeder, I'd find another spot. 

[charby]

The current plan is to clean it in the best way the internet tells me, and maybe hang it as is on the inside my back yard fence somewhere. Or is there a reason not to do that?

Nature has already cleaned it for you. I would just hang it up outside and if the squirrels eat it, the squirrels eat it.

[Regolith]

That could make a nice European mount.

+1

[Perd Hapley]

Well, I've hiked around a bit, and I've never seen a skull with antlers. Cool find.

[seeker_two]

It's pesky hikers like you that make finding the perfect body dump so hard....

[tokugawa]

Old pharte story- a long time ago, around 1985, I was hiking down the Alatna river from the upper reaches near the divide, to the Koyukuk.  Nice walk.-mid 70's, bright blue skies.  Anyway, there was a bright white patch on the ground and on investigation, I found a very cool little tableau - Two caribou skulls , with intertwined racks- apparently they had gotten stuck fighting and ended up in death together.

[freakazoid]

G3?

[charby]

G3?

Um, no. G3 is the location of a point on a whitetail antler.

See http://www.dnr.sc.gov/wildlife/deer/scoring.html

[freakazoid]

I did think it weird that a squirrel would try munching on one. Although it still seems weird that it would try to eat the skull. Is that normal?

[charby]

I did think it weird that a squirrel would try munching on one. Although it still seems weird that it would try to eat the skull. Is that normal?

Normal, bones and antlers are loaded with minerals and the little rodents love them.

[tokugawa]

bones and antlers are often gnawed on by various creatures.

[Scout26]

It's pesky hikers like you that make finding the perfect body dump so hard....

Backhoe.

[230RN]

Old pharte story- a long time ago, around 1985, I was hiking down the Alatna river from the upper reaches near the divide, to the Koyukuk.  Nice walk.-mid 70's, bright blue skies.  Anyway, there was a bright white patch on the ground and on investigation, I found a very cool little tableau - Two caribou skulls , with intertwined racks- apparently they had gotten stuck fighting and ended up in death together.

There's something maladaptive about that phenomenon.  Can't put my finger on it, though.  Yeah, a "struggle" to be the most suitable procreator would be considered adaptive, but maybe too much of a struggle weeds something out of the gene pool?

Or maybe it just weeds out having too much of a rack.  (In the antler sense, not the booby sense.)

Interesting. 

Terry, 230RN

[BryanP]

See the gnaw marks ??

Squirrels.

So unless you want to create a squirrel feeder, I'd find another spot.  

For whatever reason I never see squirrels in my neighborhood.  I have groundhogs, doves, hawks, the occasional possum, a nearby creek with a fair number of trees.  You'd think I'd have them.  Heck, I keep three bird feeders out back stocked with black oil sunflower seed.  I've never seen one squirrel.  (except in the sense that a groundhog is technically a squirrel)

[BryanP]

BTW, my wife had to point out that Pinterest is definitely no longer only for women -

http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=cleaning%20deer%20skulls