Skull Bud

So, it all started because I’ve been thinking a lot about tattoos lately and with hearing my coyotes the other night, I started dreaming about my Micoa/Melahuac tattoo again.  Then I remembered that when I found Micoa, there was also a vulture that had been hit and killed by a car who was presumably trying to scavenge him.  It was sad to see, but it’s been a while and I had kinda forgotten about it.  In remembering it, I thought perhaps I could add vultures to my coyote tattoo, or at least have the vulture beside Micoa in order to honor the poor scavenger.  I was about to tell someone my idea when I accidentally hit the “c” key instead of “v” when it hit me.

Vulture Culture.

I was so excited that I immediately felt my heart race because it was so perfect, especially because it went so well with Naturepunk’s recent suggestion that a vulture should be the mascot of the taxidermy community (which, even though I’m not a taxidermist, I feel like it kinda applies to us bone collectors too).  Aside from deciding that I definitely want a vulture tattoo with the words “Vulture Culture” to honor the poor vulture and my bone collecting “hobby” (if I can even call it a mere hobby anymore), I realized its potential as a term for us as a community.  I was waiting to say anything about it until I had drawn up a design to debut it with, but after this fiasco with the “Bone Queen” issue and being encouraged by Watserbones to release it, I felt that perhaps now would be a good time.

Thank you all so much for supporting my blog. I know 2020 has started off really rough for everyone, and I hope you all are staying safe and taking care of yourselves and your loved ones. I wanted to throw out a bit more positive energy and add a second, bonus critter as a separate giveaway.  

The giveaway is for a wallhanger badger, sent to me from my business partner who asked for this hide to be used in a future giveaway. As always, no animals were harmed for the sake of this giveaway.

Rules:

USA entries only!

Likes & reblogs count as entry. You may reblog this post up to three (3) times per day for extra entries!

Please follow @blackbackedjackal to keep track of updates and future giveaways!

If you reblog the post to a sideblog, please include your main blog in the tags so I know where you followed from!

Must be 18 or older to enter.

Giveaway will end May 9th, 2020 @ 10pm EST.

Winner will be selected via a random number generator.

After being notified, the winner must contact me with their shipping address within 24 hours or another winner will be chosen. I’ll cover shipping costs!

This giveaway is not endorsed by tumblr.

If you have any further questions feel free to message me! Thank you and good luck <33!!  

I hit two follower milestones while trying to get this together, both 8,888k and 9k, so it’s well past time for another giveaway :D!

The giveaway is for a wallhanger wild red fox pelt from my personal collection! He’s a male with a beautiful bright ‘cherry red’ coloration and the classic white-tipped tail. As always, no animals were harmed for the sake of this giveaway.

Rules:

USA entries only!

Likes & reblogs count as entry. You may reblog this post up to three (3) times per day for extra entries! 

Please follow @blackbackedjackal to keep track of updates and future giveaways!

If you reblog the post to a sideblog, please include your main blog in the tags so I know where you followed from!

I am close to another follower milestone so a bonus item will be added if I hit said milestone during this giveaway. That bonus item will run for one week after this giveaway ends and an additional winner will be chosen.

Must be 18 or older to enter.

Giveaway will end April 30th, 2020 @ 8pm EST.

Winner will be selected via a random number generator.

After being notified, the winner must contact me with their shipping address within 24 hours or another winner will be chosen. I’ll cover shipping costs!

This giveaway is not endorsed by tumblr.

If you have any further questions feel free to message me! Thank you and good luck <33!!  

By definition I’m not harming any living animals because everything I work on is already long dead when it arrives to me so there’s no way I could have injured or hurt the animal while it was alive and I’m not mistreating any of the remains I use.  I only buy or gather animals remains that have been properly and humanely treated prior to being dispatched or had accidental/natural deaths.

me: no animals harmed 

militant vegans/anti-furs/animal rights activists:

It isn’t a bobcat. This skull has tiny premolars behind the canines; bobcats don’t have these. So this was a domestic/ housecat. (Most likely one of the feral tomcats that live around here, not a pet).

The study is called Feline ( Felis catus) Skull and Pelvic Morphology and Morphometry: Gender-Related Difference? if you’re curious! They measured a bunch of skulls comparatively, and they found that “[n]o parameters from skull showed a significant difference between male and female cats” i.e. while the skulls were all a little unique, there were no sex-specific characteristics.

The closest thing to a significant difference they could find was "[...] the morphology of the coronoid process[...]” Basically, they found that the coronoid process was more curved in females than in males. They tested this further by having people try to guess a cat mandible’s sex by looking at the coronoid process. They guessed with... 64.9% accuracy. That’s not great!

As for the breed... I’m afraid you probably won’t find anything there! Cats rarely adhere to specific breeds, especially feral cats. Some people call these common cats “American shorthairs”, but that’s not actually true, as that’s an established & specific breed. Most cats are considered moggies!

If there’s roadkill laying out and I know that the DOT is just going to dispose of it, there’s no reason for me to not grab it for myself and work on the remains to either keep or pass on to someone else that will appreciate that animal.

AND if people are going to hunt and trap animals, at least if I purchase them I know that they’ll be appreciated as an individual critter instead of a graded hide on the fur market.

So yeah it gets on my nerves when people act like I’m a literal demon when I work on animals, ESPECIALLY when I do get them from people who killed the animal. I’ve taken no part of an animal’s death. Everything I buy or get in is already dead when I bought it or found it and nothing I can do will bring it back to life. But at least in death I can spend time with the remains to clean them up as best I can and know that it’ll either be kept in my collection or sold to someone who would appreciate the remains as much as I would.