[Nhcoll-l] Bear Cub prep

[Katrina Derieg]

Hi Beth,
I agree with Aren, the bear cubs will make nice study skins + skull/skel. You can do flat study skins and just put cardboard in the skin with some cotton wrapped around the cardboard. We don’t have any bear skins at UMNH, but I attached some photos of badgers that were prepared flat and they store nicely. If you’re concerned about space, you could also just save the skull/skel and a mask. So for a mask you just keep the skin from the face and pin it out flat to dry (fur side down on the board). This is typically what I do with large adult carnivores. I’m not a proponent of tanning because some tanning processes substantially degrade the DNA in the skin making DNA recovery nearly impossible. I assume you’re taking tissue as well, but say the tissue gets lost or used up, you could still extract DNA from dried skin. Also not sure if tanning compromises the fur in any way if someone wanted to do stable isotope analysis on hair.

Since you have four of them, you could do a few different prep types so they could be used in different ways. Perhaps just do one cub in fluid?

Good luck! Sounds like a fun project!

Katrina Derieg
Vertebrate Zoology Collections Manager
Natural History Museum of Utah (UMNH)
301 Wakara Way
Salt Lake City, Utah 84108
Email: kderieg at nhmu.utah.edu<mailto:kderieg at nhmu.utah.edu>
Mobile: (801) 707-4819 | Office: (801) 587-5787
she/her

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Aren Gunderson
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2022 4:25 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Bear Cub prep

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.
[cid:image001.jpg at 01D8E88F.E6383400]
[cid:image002.jpg at 01D8E88F.E6383400]
Good luck,
Aren

On Tue, Oct 25, 2022 at 12:40 PM Elizabeth Wommack <ewommack at uwyo.edu<mailto: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@<mailto:ewommack at berkeley.edu>uwyo.edu<http://uwyo.edu/>
pronouns: she, her, herself
www.uwymv.org<http://www.uwymv.org/>
UWYMV Collection Use Policy<http://www.uwymv.org/index.php/download_file/view/43/143/>
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Aren Gunderson
Mammal Collection Manager
University of Alaska Museum of the North<http://www.uaf.edu/museum>
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