Dead Animals

CrazyHermit · Post by **CrazyHermit** » Fri Jul 17, 2020 9:06 am

My morbid collection of road kill and other sad animal demises ...

Fox.jpg

I found this little Gray Fox just last weekend on Mt. Baldy Rd. He was in such good condition I took him home
to have him taxidermied, but then I found out the cost. Yikes! So I gave him to the Eaton Canyon Nature Center,
where I sometimes do docent work.

ringtail.jpg

I found this Ringtail on Hwy 39 on the way to the East Fork. It was a fresh kill, but the skull was too damaged
to have him taxidermied.

jay.JPG

People call these Blue Jays, but there are actually no Blue Jays in California. This is a Steller's Jay. I offered
him to Eaton Canyon, but they can't take birds because of the Newcastle Virus, which it may have died from.

deer.jpg

This poor little Mule Deer got whacked on Lower Tujunga Rd. You can tell he was less than a year old from
the spots on his side.

coyote.jpg

This badly desiccated Coyote (or maybe a chupacabra) was found near Inspiration Point, outside of Wrightwood.
He was missing a leg, which leads me to believe he may have been caught in a trap and chewed it off.

tarantula.jpg

Found near the Bridge To Nowhere, this LOOKED like a dead Tarantula. But on closer inspection this turned
out to be a shed exoskeleton. They shed their entire outer shells just like snakes do with skin. So somewhere
out there this spider still lives on.

bighorn.jpg

This Bighorn skull was found about 200 yards from the Horseshoe Annex Mine. The rest of the skeleton is
still inside the mine, killed by a mountain lion. I took the skull home, bleached it, and now it's on my wall.

kingsnake.jpg

This King Snake was found on a road in Agua Dulce, near Sterling Mine. A car had injured him, and he was
pretty much doomed if he stayed on that hot pavement. I moved him off to the side, but he probably didn't survive.

Post by **dima** » Fri Jul 17, 2020 12:20 pm

This is my kind of post! What's your success rate with roadkill? I'm discovering that more often than not, cars have run over the carcass, shattering the bones. And I usually can't tell until after some fairly-smely work. Oh, how different do empty tarantula exoskeletons look from living tarantulas? I've seen these a few times, but assumed they were the full animal. Would have taken it home if it was just a shell.

CrazyHermit · Post by **CrazyHermit** » Fri Jul 17, 2020 12:27 pm

I don't even bother with the splatter kills. If they get whacked in the head and not actually run over the carcass is salvagable, if it's fresh. I used to have a pet tarantula and one morning I woke up with two full sized ones in the cage. What the hell? That's how I found out about them shedding. The shed looks identical to the spider.

robow8 · Post by **robow8** » Fri Jul 17, 2020 5:40 pm

I was road walking from Buckhorn Campground back to Cloudburst Summit and almost walked into a dead deer near Krakta Ridge. It looked like most of it's vitals were gone. I shoulda taken a photo; sorry.

Post by **dima** » Fri Jul 17, 2020 5:54 pm

Sounds like a just-the-right-amount-of-dead specimen. You should have taken it home

CrazyHermit · Post by **CrazyHermit** » Fri Jul 17, 2020 6:43 pm

Here's a shot of the rest of the bighorn's skeleton. I always get nervous when I enter this mine.

IMG_3461[1].jpg

Post by **Sean** » Sat Jul 18, 2020 2:13 pm

Neat pics. The worst one I ever encountered was a dead deer alongside Angeles Forest Highway, probably roadkill. It was rotting and the stench was horrible.

robow8 · Post by **robow8** » Mon Jul 20, 2020 6:56 pm

Sean wrote: Neat pics. The worst one I ever encountered was a dead deer alongside Angeles Forest Highway, probably roadkill. It was rotting and the stench was horrible.

That's my problem; I have no sense of smell, so I get no warning.

David R · Post by **David R** » Tue Jul 21, 2020 10:50 am

This is bringing back flashbacks of finding that suicide last year. I'm done with finding dead things.

CrazyHermit · Post by **CrazyHermit** » Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:14 am

A few new additions to my morbid collection.
The first are skulls from prairie dogs.
The second is a dead antelope. I broke the skull of the rest of the skeleton and took it home to bleach.

If the photos don't upload here's a link.
https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipO ... sV_s0WADIp

Post by **dima** » Thu Jul 14, 2022 1:19 pm

Your tapatalk photos posted just fine. But your google photos require a google account. How much are they paying you???

Post by **dima** » Thu Jul 14, 2022 1:20 pm

Oh, and thanks for the photos. How do you know the smaller ones were prairie dogs? Do they have some identifying features? Rodents all look kinda similar.

CrazyHermit · Post by **CrazyHermit** » Thu Jul 14, 2022 1:28 pm

That stuff was found on the prairie, east side of Colorado Springs. There aren't any rodents with skulls that big out here other than prairie dogs. One skull had a damaged eye socket, so they were probably killed by hawks or falcons.. There are badgers out here too. That would be a dream find. Google Photos is free, unless you have a massive amount of photos, and then they start charging you.

Post by **dima** » Thu Jul 14, 2022 3:43 pm

Neat! You definitely need a google account to give them images, but I thought you could tell them to not require one for people viewing the images? There's no button you can push?

CrazyHermit · Post by **CrazyHermit** » Thu Jul 14, 2022 3:54 pm

Not sure.

Girl Hiker · Post by **Girl Hiker** » Mon Aug 01, 2022 4:22 pm

So morbid but cool!

CrazyHermit · Post by **CrazyHermit** » Mon Aug 01, 2022 5:41 pm

Creepy Joe approves

Post by **dima** » Mon Aug 01, 2022 10:41 pm

I don't know what that means. But can we please keep this apolitical? Thanks.

CrazyHermit · Post by **CrazyHermit** » Tue Aug 02, 2022 3:27 am

Is there anything in this world that doesn't offend you Dima?

Post by **HikeUp** » Tue Aug 02, 2022 6:45 am

Hawk.

IMG_0294.jpg

Post by **HikeUp** » Tue Aug 09, 2022 5:28 pm

Copter Ridge (Aug 2009)

IMG_5004.jpg

Post by **Taco** » Tue Aug 16, 2022 10:38 pm

My dreams

Post by **tekewin** » Thu Aug 18, 2022 8:45 am

Thanks for the Faces of Death post.

BTW, how much is it to taxidermy a carcass?

CrazyHermit · Post by **CrazyHermit** » Thu Aug 18, 2022 8:57 am

Taxidermy is pricey. Depends on how big the animal is. If you find something that is in good shape they recommend you freeze it as soon as possible. There are also good and bad taxidermists, so make sure you view a few photos of what they've done before. For fish they charge by the inch, about $11 to $22 per inch. Something large like a bear can go for anywhere from $3,000 and $4,800. A raccoon or a fox might go for $400 to $600

Post by **tekewin** » Thu Aug 18, 2022 9:42 am

Thanks! I've always wondered how much it cost.

Post by **Sean** » Wed Nov 30, 2022 10:12 am

Found on the Wilson toll road.

DSC09344.JPG

CrazyHermit · Post by **CrazyHermit** » Sun Oct 15, 2023 12:15 pm

Why shop when you can run one over.

Post by **JeffH** » Sun Nov 05, 2023 4:24 pm

Squirrel at Henninger Flat area.

IMG_1024.JPG

CrazyHermit · Post by **CrazyHermit** » Sun Nov 05, 2023 5:12 pm

What's that hole in the ground above him?

Post by **JeffH** » Sun Nov 05, 2023 5:54 pm

CrazyHermit wrote: What's that hole in the ground above him?

It's the water drainage.