[Nhcoll-l] Preparing small ungulates?

[Thomas Labedz]

Katrina
I have assisted students at another institution with a deer fawn skin, and
myself have done as study skins an adult gray wolf, immature black bear,
and other moderate-sized North American mammal specimens. Being retired I
no longer have access to the collections to send you photos.
Skin the specimen carefully, as the hide will be tender. Skin the feet to
the toes, opening the skin if necessary to get better access to the bones.
Keep those limbs handy for reference. Depending upon the circumstances of
its death it may be thin and have little fat. Or, if healthy, could have
lots of fat under the skin. Scrape carefully the hide free of fat and wash
as many times as necessary to remove oils. I caution against cardboard as a
body support, I've used looped heavy wire wrapped in cotton, wood dowels,
or a wood plank. Though I've never done so, you might consider a plank of
archival quality ethafoam as the main body support, wrapped in cotton. For
the limbs I'd recommend a heavy steel wire, at least galvanized or
annealed. Do not use copper under any circumstances. Wrap cotton around the
wire and wrap that with cotton string to get the form of the limb as
referenced from the limbs removed. On the distal tips you might twist
lighter wire to poke through the skin between the hooves and hook back as
an anchor. On the proximal end leave enough of the heavy wire to be folded
/ looped into the body as an anchor. If heavy wire is not available, I
suggest wooden dowels cut to the length of the individual limb bones and
wired together with lighter wire to create a hinge joint spot before
wrapping with cotton and string. If desired, just before being set to dry,
you might consider sewing the limbs adjacent portions of the body as
additional support when being handled. You likely will not have to split
the ear to replace the cartilaginous membrane, but you might want to create
a cotton ball to help the ear hold its shape while drying.
Good luck,
Thomas Labedz, Lincoln, Nebraska
retired Collections Manager, Division of Zoology
University of Nebraska State Museum

On Wed, Aug 28, 2024 at 2:01 PM Katrina Derieg <kderieg at nhmu.utah.edu>
wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> We salvaged a mule deer fawn on campus recently and would like to prepare
> it as a study skin since it is in such good shape. It was very young, so it
> is quite small. We don’t have any ungulate skins apart from some old tanned
> hides, so I’m not exactly sure the best way to go about this. I’m imagining
> doing a semi-flat skin like you would do with a raccoon or fox, with a
> cardboard center and some cotton wrapped around it. I’m just wondering how
> to handle those super long legs. Our drawers are at least a meter in length
> (not sure off the top of my head).
>
>
>
> If anyone has small ungulate skin preps in their collections, could you
> send me a picture or give some pointers?
>
>
>
> Thank you!
>
>
>
> 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
>
> Mobile: (801) 707-4819 | Office: (801) 587-5787
>
> she/her
>
>
>
> Search the collections on Arctos: Mammals
> <https://arctos.database.museum/search.cfm?guid_prefix=UMNH:Mamm> | Birds
> <https://arctos.database.museum/search.cfm?guid_prefix=UMNH:Bird> | Reptiles
> & Amphibians
> <https://arctos.database.museum/search.cfm?guid_prefix=UMNH:Herp>
>
>
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