Dear Phillip,
I would agree with Sheila on this one - I have certainly retrieved gnawed
chicken bones from my cats!
Liz Somerville
--On 09 February 2006 23:31 +0000 S H-D <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Phillip, I would have thought that fox is likely to have done
> similar, if not maybe quite so extensive, damage as dog - in my garden
> foxes usually remove entire carcasses of fowl and rabbit, but cats do sit
> and crunch a carcasse in situ, I have had cats that would eat substantial
> portions of bones. The mustelid is an interesting thought - what about
> polecat/ferret or pinemarten rather than stoat? my money is on cat or
> mini-dog though. Sheila
> SH-D ArchaeoZoology
> http://www.shd-archzoo.co.uk/
> All mail virus and spam checked
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, February 09, 2006 8:37 PM
> Subject: [ZOOARCH] goose skeleton
>
>
> Dear Zooarchs.
>
> Jessica Grimm kindly posted to the Zooarch. network my request for other
> examples of goose burials - following a phone call I Imade this afternoon
> to Wessex Archaeology.
>
> The articulated skeleton in question came from a Late Iron Age/Early Roman
> period pit fill, at a site in Cambridgeshire. Virtually all parts are
> represented
> apart from the cervical vertebare (missing) and incomplete skull & sternum
> (both broken). All elements are well-preseved and there is no evidence of
> butchery/consumption.
>
> Of particular interest is the evidence of animal chewing/gnawing on the
> dist.
> radius/ulna, prox. humerus, dist.femur, prox & dist tibiotarsus and prox
> & dist tarsometatarsus. The epiphyseal ends in these bones exhibit small
> tooth (cusp) pucture marks of the type decribed by Terry O'Connor in
> cat-chewed
> fowl bones. However, there is also evidence in the goose bones of
> crunching and partial destruction (gnawing).
>
> I believe it is unlikely a dog caused such damage - my own dog recently
> managed
> to crunch and devour completely a freshly-cleaned comparative duck
> skeleton I had foolishly left to dry on a table. Could the damage in the
> goose indicate
> scavenging by a fox - or perhaps even a stoat???
>
> Any suggestions will be very helpful.
>
> Many Thanks
> Philip
>
>
> Dr. Philip L. Armitage
> Brixham Heritage Museum,
> Devon
> TQ5 8LZ
>
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