Adventures in Zooarchaeology Pt 2: The Raccoon
So we're working on our second project for zooarchaeology this quarter, which in this case involves a raccoon (there's also an owl, another squirrel, and a few tiny birds in the freezer for later). Having learned a bit from the previous project, we decided to start on this project by defrosting it overnight, then skinning and eviscerating it before tossing it in the pot for boiling.
The first thing we learned about in the morning when it was thawed was. . . the smell. Dead raccoon apparently smells like a skunk gone bad. To mitigate the odor we had to move outside, which apparently meant that we inflicted it on random passers-by instead, particularly those going to the bathroom nearby. Also, neither of us actually knew how to skin or gut a whole animal, although the other student (Hannah) was better at it than I am. Her mother apparently does taxidermy on the side, so when we get to the owl or the junco (one of our local tiny bird species) we'll probably ask her Mom to come in and show us how to skin out a bird.
However, the results after boiling were a lot better this time, although we're still running into the usual difficulties of defleshing just caused by the fact that wild animals seem to have much tougher connective tissue than what we're used to from our domestics. As with previous animals we usually find out what killed the animal pretty quickly once the skin comes off; in this case it was massive head trauma, accompanied by secondary fracturing of both hips. At least it seems to have been quick.
As a side note, while squirrel smells more like chicken when it's boiled, raccoon has more of an. . .er, interesting odor. It's like Chinese sausage gone rancid. Our best guess is that this is because the animal we're working on was a suburban raccoon, which means she was primarily getting fat on cat food and garbage.
So yeah, if you ever wonder where I am on Fridays during the day, this is usually what I'm up to.
Your skill in skinning has increased to 1.
You recieve loot [Ruined Leather Scraps].
You receive loot [Disgusting Raccoon Carcass].
You recieve loot [Bucket of Offal].
The first thing we learned about in the morning when it was thawed was. . . the smell. Dead raccoon apparently smells like a skunk gone bad. To mitigate the odor we had to move outside, which apparently meant that we inflicted it on random passers-by instead, particularly those going to the bathroom nearby. Also, neither of us actually knew how to skin or gut a whole animal, although the other student (Hannah) was better at it than I am. Her mother apparently does taxidermy on the side, so when we get to the owl or the junco (one of our local tiny bird species) we'll probably ask her Mom to come in and show us how to skin out a bird.
However, the results after boiling were a lot better this time, although we're still running into the usual difficulties of defleshing just caused by the fact that wild animals seem to have much tougher connective tissue than what we're used to from our domestics. As with previous animals we usually find out what killed the animal pretty quickly once the skin comes off; in this case it was massive head trauma, accompanied by secondary fracturing of both hips. At least it seems to have been quick.
As a side note, while squirrel smells more like chicken when it's boiled, raccoon has more of an. . .er, interesting odor. It's like Chinese sausage gone rancid. Our best guess is that this is because the animal we're working on was a suburban raccoon, which means she was primarily getting fat on cat food and garbage.
So yeah, if you ever wonder where I am on Fridays during the day, this is usually what I'm up to.
Your skill in skinning has increased to 1.
You recieve loot [Ruined Leather Scraps].
You receive loot [Disgusting Raccoon Carcass].
You recieve loot [Bucket of Offal].
