[Nhcoll-l] Bear Cub prep

[Aren Gunderson]

Hi Beth,
We have many standard study skins of young bears. There is no need to tan
the hides. Skin them as you would a squirrel or vole. Wash the skin with
dish soap to remove grease, then towel dry. We use bamboo skewers or wooden
dowels instead of wire, for large skins. Blow out the hair with lab
compressed air to push any water out of it and to fluff it up. After
pinning the skin, insert the compressed air into the mouth and a hind foot
to push some air through the skin while it dries. We have done this with
skins as large as adult lynx, coyotes, beaver, and wolf.
[image: IMG_0828.jpeg]
[image: IMG_0829.jpeg]
Good luck,
Aren

On Tue, Oct 25, 2022 at 12:40 PM Elizabeth Wommack <ewommack at uwyo.edu>
wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> The UWYMV has 4 young bear cubs (~30-50lbs) we will be prepping, and I'm a
> bit unsure on the best preservation method to use.
> They are too large for our fluid collection, which is what I normally do
> for developing animals.
>
> Typically for bears we preserve a pelt and partial skeleton. With
> something this young though, I wasn't sure how the tanning process may go.
> They are small enough that we could make rounds of them as well, but I've
> never seen a round of a bear that isn't a taxidermy mount. We have space in
> our collection to take either type of prep.
>
> Does anyone have any experience working with tanned hides of developing
> animals? Are there considerations we should make?
> Does anyone have any examples of rounds of bear cubs they could share?
> And of course, if anyone has any thoughts or ideas they would be greatly
> appreciated.
>
> Cheers,
> Beth Wommack
>
> Elizabeth Wommack, PhD
> Curator and Collections Manager of Vertebrates
> University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrates
> Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center
> University of Wyoming,
> Laramie, WY 82071
> ewommack@ <ewommack at berkeley.edu>uwyo.edu
> pronouns: she, her, herself
> www.uwymv.org
> UWYMV Collection Use Policy
> <http://www.uwymv.org/index.php/download_file/view/43/143/>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nhcoll-l mailing list
> Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l
>
> _______________________________________________
> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
> Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.
>


-- 
Aren Gunderson
Mammal Collection Manager
University of Alaska Museum of the North <http://www.uaf.edu/museum>
1962 Yukon Drive
Fairbanks, AK 99775
amgunderson at alaska.edu
907-474-6947
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20221025/ce10a3df/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_0828.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 966144 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20221025/ce10a3df/attachment-0002.jpeg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_0829.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 1899408 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20221025/ce10a3df/attachment-0003.jpeg>