songbird said:


Pat Kiewicz wrote:

Their two most favorite things IME are apples and mulberry leaves.
One time the first sign that a groundhog had gotten past the fence
was the defoliation of the young ("bird planted") mulberries on the
garden side of the fenceline.

this one seems very insistent about whatever weeds
it's eating in that one garden. we came back from
shopping/errands yesterday and it was out there
nibbling. i tagged it solidly yesterday with a pellet
so now it has been warned several times. i'm hoping
that will be the end of it.

I like to imagine that I could blast the things with some
high-tech sci-fi laser-sighted weapon. (Maybe after I open
that Unobtainium mine.)

Last year the drought was so bad that the stunted babies were
driven out on their own earlier than normal. One was small
enough to push her way through some chain link into the veggie
garden. She ate so much edamame greenery that it wasn't able
to push her way back out. What's left of her is now a study skin.

oops, but probably very funny to see. kinda
like the snake trying to go through a small hole
after eating a chipmunk.

Just about half her body weight was in her stomach and intestines.
It was packed so solid I could hardly believe it.

(My daughter the zoology student did a rather thorough disection
with measurements but decided not to turn that particular study
skin in for credit. All of the study skins and skull she did turn in
are now in the university collection--she does good work.)

i'm not sure what a study skin is, but it sounds
like something done to study anatomy of animals
along with taxidermy in some kind of pose?

Less than taxidermy, but it preserves the skin and feet along with
data about the sex and location of collection. This is not her
university, but it gives an idea of what specimens look like and
how they might be used:

http://www.humboldt.edu/wildmuseum/policy.html

Next fall, she will be doing independent study/undergraduate
research cataloging and organizing the vertebrate collection
(skins, skull, etc.).

She's still got some skulls to clean this summer, but thankfully,
the freezer now only holds a single dead bird waiting to be
processed. (She's hoping to find some fresh and reasonably
intact birds that are larger to practice on before she tackles it.)

You can blame it all on Mike Rowe and the Dirty Jobs episode
about Skulls Unlimited. http://www.skullsunlimited.com/


--
Pat in Plymouth MI

"Yes, swooping is bad."

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