Friday, April 24, 2009

Bones in the Woods




We were checking out a property just up the road that's for sale and we came upon these bones. Not knowing what they belonged to and being the curious folks we are, we wanted to find out. Being the amateurs that we are, we were worried lest they be human bones. They are small, so the possibility of that made us concerned enough that we took a couple of photos and tried to figure it out from our anatomy books at home. I became fairly confident that they weren’t human based on how long and narrow the pelvic bone is, but I wasn’t positive, so we brought the photos into the sheriff's office. The officer there said we did the right thing, but that they aren't human. He's not trained in identifying animal bones, so had no clue what they did belong to.
Being the investigative homeschoolers that we are, we took the photos to the Parks Dept. and they didn't know what kind of animal they belonged to either, however, they said that it's likely they belonged to a member of the cat family. Bobcat? Cougar? Rather neat discovery either way. It’s impossible to ever learn everything there is to, but finds like this sure make me want to learn more. Nature continues to amaze me.