Morning all - such a nice subject to be discussing after breakfast!! 

Sodium perborate in water is great for turning the flesh to a jelly-like material, and thus easy to scrape/wash off. I know a lot of taxidermists that use it, especially for skull cleaning. However, the concentration is important, too much and it will damage the bone coupled with too much heat and time (personal experience). I skin and deflesh as much as possible, soak the 'skeleton' in seawater overnight- this lyses out the blood cells, hence no staining of the bones and then put into luke warm water with about a teaspoon of biological washing powder (depending on size of pot of course, the amount will vary)...and then a few water changes without the powder.... Simmer, simmer, etc... Air dry -  hey presto!
Burial is an option, but staining is a problem with the bones and also decomposition and bone damage too depending on type of soil, drainage, season etc.

Now for a few stories, since we are sharing! 
....Including a ban from DHL for life - it wasn't my fault per say, but the package came from Belgium about 5 years back, my colleague was rushing away on holidays, so failed to fully prepare a roe deer skeleton for me... Let's just say, the plane was unexpectedly grounded in a unscheuduled stop in England, MI5, army, police called out, pilots sick, nasty smell in plane.... Through much begging and grovelling after they identified that the remains were not a human child, DHL managed to get package to Dublin airport and their warehouse, where I was asked, not so politely, to come in and pick up the package at 4am in the morning since they wanted to wash their hands of it. I wouldn't mind, but the smell wasn't that bad in my books!!!
Another involves a remote part of Ireland, popular in the 1980s with buiral of murdered bodies, drugs, dumping ground etc... A friend of mine reported to me he came across a sheep skeleton while he was out walking - he gave me the 'exact' location and I went in search of this carcase early the next morning. Now what I have to point out to all of you here, is that this is mainly bogland area, with no defining landmarks bar one, but no matter where you stand in this area you are in line with the landmark - get my drift? So there I am, with full length apron, wellies, blackbags, knife, gloves wandering the barren landscape looking for the sheep. There is a army training ground near enough, they often practise their helicopters flights in this area....the first fly-by, I waved........the second fly-by, a bit closer this time, I waved and smiled........ The third fly-by, very close now, I glanced in their direction, and thought to myself if only they could locate the carcase as it would make my life easier.... At this stage I have been out for close to 4 hours. My body is craving the hot coffee in the flask at this stage which is in the car awaiting my return, I don't think I mentioned the very refreshing January weather that was up in these regions with the odd shower of horizontal driving rain/sleet. Come on now, a free sheep carcase, who wouldn't do it?? Anyways, as I began to make my way back to the car, I spotted our local police or gardaí coming across the bog towards me, all three fine lads... As I heard the army helicopter in the background, gazed at these men of the law, I suddenly twigged that the army lads must have reported me, and looking at my appearance in this particular area, that yes, I was very suspicious looking!!! After they tentatively approached in a somewhat spread-out triangle formation and started asking questions after I greeted them with 'howye, fine day'.... Somehow, the explanation of a 'zoologist' looking for a sheep carcase to prepare the skeleton for my personal bone comparative collection, was so unbelieveable and odd, that the boys in blue took it as so.... We shared a nervous laugh and proceeded back across the bog to the parked cars where I decided that it was time to call it a morning and drink my coffee elsewhere! Three days later, I get a phone call from a friend of mine who is stationed in another part of the country (with the gardaí), to ask have I found any sheep carcases of late? !!! The good old grapevine got a great run for it's money that week!

I have more, but sure life is never dull when collected dead animals is a sort of a hobby!

Sláinte - Ruth


Dr. Ruth Carden
Technical Assistant
Natural History Division
National Museum of Ireland
Merrion Street
Dublin 2
Ireland
 
Tel: +353 1 6486334
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www.museum.ie

-----Original Message-----
From: Analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anthony Legge
Sent: 26 May 2007 11:40
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [ZOOARCH] processing specimens

The several methods for cleaning specimens have been much discussed over the years; my own collection was almost all prepared by defleshing and the gentle boiling, followed by oxidation with Sodium perborate. This hasn't come up in discussion. Is there a reason why? These crystals look like sugar and a lot is scattered over a defleshed skeleton (say 1kg for a sheep). Very hot water is then poured on, giving rise to strong release of oxygen (stand well back!). When cool, the bones can be easily scrubbed clean of ligaments and so on.  Specimens that I prepared 30 years ago show no signs of deterioration. On the other hand, a bull calcaneum left too long in a biological detergent solution was very significantly eroded.

An alternative is burial, but make sure that this is in well aerated conditions, either in an active compost heap or in a well drained garden soil. Again, beware very acid sandy soils which can damage bone surprisingly quickly. Burial tends to produce brown stained specimens, presumably from degraded haemoglobin.

My best carrion story involves collecting feral pig skeletons in Australia, from animals shot near to the NSW-Queensland border. The partially defleshed carcasses were saved for about a week, then put into sacks, and tied onto the outside of a Land Cruiser - not possible inside! The journey back to Canberra was a drive of hundreds of miles, with only ONE set of traffic lights on the way, these in the main street of a small town. Imagine, nice warm Sunday evening, everyone out for a stroll along the main street,  and the traffic lights turned red.....if you don't believe me, ask Jim O'Connell.

Best,

Tony Legge 
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