Monday, November 26, 2012

Alligator skull is finally complete!

It's been a long time coming (here's the original gator post back in August), but the gator skull is finally complete! I've been really busy lately with training and such, but I had some time today to get the gator skull all wrapped up.

This has been a fun project, even if it seemed to take forever, but I really learned a lot since this was my first gator. There were several differences between this skull and the mammal skulls that I am so used to cleaning, such as the type of meat, the smell (stinky!), the way that the bone reacts to the whitening peroxide, and the way that the bone dries. I have two more gators to clean, and this one was the smallest of the three, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the others go.



Happy Hunting!


Thursday, November 8, 2012

Bird, Dog, Cat

Several weeks ago, a pigeon was messing around in my wife's garden, and then mysteriously dropped dead. ;-) Not one to let an opportunity go to waste, I realized that I had not cleaned a pigeon skull in the past - in fact, this is the smallest skull I have ever cleaned. It turned out really well!


Back in May at the Coyote Clinic, we skinned a coyote during the skinning demonstration that was provided by a former Coyote Clinic graduate. I was finally able to get around to cleaning the skull this last month, and thought it fitting that it should be displayed on the tire of my fur gettin' truck.


And I'm slowly working my way through a box of bobcat heads in my freezer, all of which were trapped last season. Here's a few of them that I finished over the last couple of weeks, with one particularly large skull on the right. I really like the way that the skulls reflect in the bumper of the fur gettin' truck.


More skulls are coming soon - the alligator is just about wrapped up (had a bit of a peroxide issue), and several nice mule deer bucks are being cleaned as of right now.

If anyone needs bobcat skulls, by the way, they are for sale. I'll also donate them to educational institutions, especially any that teach kids about responsible hunting or outdoor skills.


Happy Hunting!