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Wildlife Spotting

Procyon lotor

Photo by HemaShah
Published on Project Noah
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36.7015, -118.756

Field Notes

Description:

This one is for the ," Identifying animals thru Osteology", mission.
This carcass was 3 ft long from mouth to tail and about 3ft tall. Animal could have been between 10 to 15 lbs.
It had long legs and a prominent rib cage .
Any guesses?

Reference Links:

Raccoon Skull- four views - [email protected]

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (14)
HemaShah
Emily,and these remains were in the foothills and near a body of water.
HemaShah
3ft long.must be about 1 to 3 ft in ht. Seemed long and slender and flexible. Did you see how one leg is tossed over the other? Also from the teeth looks like a juvenile. Teeth seem to be in fairly good condition.Also did you notice that his jaws are together? He probably died first and then was eaten. It has about 40 to 42 teeth which do seem the right number for a raccoon.
EmilyMarino
Definitely not coyote or fox. They have a longer thinner muzzles. Not a opossum, due to the number of incisors. Do you remember the size of the remains?
williefromwi
Emma, I think you should just go with Raccoon for now. This very well could be, one. It could be that this animal was scavenged over and the ribs are no longer complete. If we could see the top of the skull we would know for sure.
HemaShah
The total teeth seem to be between 40 t0 42.
HemaShah
How about Coyote? Fox ? ring tail cat? oppossum? never seen a ring tail here though!
EmilyMarino
Deer god, it is not a fawn! lol! California deer species do not have canine teeth or teeth on their top jaw for that matter! Too bad you didn't get a picture of the top of the skull, that would have made the ID easier. My vote is still raccoon. Although it is possible it could be a skunk, badger or something along those lines!
HemaShah
Williefromwi,that is a fantastic link. i am still looking thru it. In the meantime I changed the spotting to unknown,till I confirm the ID. Thanks so much!
HemaShah
Thanks Willie! A lady on horse back was insisting that it was a fawn. She said she had deer like that in her back yard. This carcass had slender long legs!
williefromwi
When I have time I want to look at this spotting some more. I am not certain this is a raccoon. The front Canine teeth do not look right, and the rib cage, unless it was completely broken up, does not look like that of a raccoon. I am going to leave you with this link, that might give you more thoughts on what you have. http://www.flickr.com/photos/26485684@N08/page3/ There are full skeletons on different pages on this flicker sight as well.
EmilyMarino
Raccoon is a really good guess! I would second that! I have one in my collection too! :)
HemaShah
http://www.science-art.com/image/?id=2161&m=128&pagename=raccoon_skull-_four_views
HemaShah
Thanks for your feed back ShaneSamsa. I will go with Raccoon.
Shane_S
I'm about 99% sure this is a raccoon. The skull is identical to the one in my collection.

Spotted for Missions

Mission
Identifying Animals Through Osteology
Photographed
PublishedJune 27, 2012

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