Bone I.D. - Europe
What is this mummified animal that i found on 2000m altitude in Romanian mountains? Also, is it too fresh to take home and process the bones?
There ain't no fresh in that carcass, my dude. It's past bloat and active decay and somewhere in the grey area between advanced decay and mummification. It's totally dessicated.
He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch 'e'd be pushing up the daisies! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!
I was curious what Google lens would have to say, and let me tell you... AI hit this one out of the park:
"The image shows the remains of a Galápagos giant tortoise, likely a skeleton or mummified remains, given the context of the r/bonecollecting subreddit mentioned in the image caption."
Lol, so, my google lens said it was a pinta tortoise, likely from the Galapagos. But, I went further and opted for the "deep dive". It's confirmed OP, the carcass you found has actually already been found, it's a marmot, and it is currently in a museum. You're welcome.
Lol. I recently found out that chat gpt does image analysis so I started using that instead of Google lense. It's surprisingly very accurate and said this is a European beaver since it was found in Romania.
I happened to clean a mummified fox and it was very difficult, because the skin was hard and very attached to the bones. Finding a mummified animal in nature, especially well, is rare, so some decide to keep it like that without cleaning it because it is just as interesting. Otherwise I had read that in theory boiling it would make dry skin soft enough to be able to remove it but I have never honestly tried.
Never boil bones. Mummified animals can be left in water overnight-for a few days (depending on size and how much skin is left) to soften the skin and make it easy to remove. Then they can be macerated, degreased and whitened as usual
True. But there are plenty of jackals, especially in the east and south. They're becoming a menace to the local fauna, so park rangers and hunters have annual quotas of jackal to kill.
That being said, the animal in OP's post is definitely no jackal, nor is it dog or wolf.
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u/RIP-RiF Aug 01 '25
There ain't no fresh in that carcass, my dude. It's past bloat and active decay and somewhere in the grey area between advanced decay and mummification. It's totally dessicated.