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Where We Left Off:
Oliver and Gus found another body uncomfortably close to home.
A Bone for a Bone:
Down a steep slope on the county land, the trees open up a little. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of trash littered around. Some of that could be jerks throwing their trash out cars; and some is likely from being blown by wind; the least possible, but still statistically plausible is when wildlife drags garbage bags away from the source to see if they’ve found anything delicious.
During a recent expedition over to the county land, Gus found a bone! This bone is clearly a mammal pelvis and had been cleaned and picked by scavengers. There are ridges all over it from teeth of other mammals. We gave the bone a quick examination in the field and then brought it home.
Oliver mapped where the bone was found and realized it was not far from another bone recovery location (read Case File No. 47-411). That meant the bones possibly came from the same body, but it wasn’t enough information to completely convince us. The main reason for not accepting this possibility immediately is that the first bone (a scapula) was found January 10; this pelvis was found in September. Gus has explored this particular area at other times this year, but we never found that pelvis until September. Is it possible it was there all along?
Scavengers clean an adult deer quickly. It only takes a few days for almost all of the meat to be eaten. By then, the remaining soft tissue is the connective tissue (fascia, ligaments, and tendons) with very little muscle meat remaining. A skeleton found in a condition like that is one of the only ways that it wouldn’t be found in a pile of individual bones. Some bones are fused together while others are held together to allow movement.
Theory 1 – The Same Victim:
We didn’t have enough information to fully identify the victim in Case File No. 47-411. Because the scapula was large, we had wondered if it was a buck. However, now that we have two of the same bones from different individuals (the pelvis), we can compare size better.
If this pelvis belongs to the same animal as the scapula, it is still possible that the victim was a doe. We know for certain the 2021 victim was a doe, because she had been found quickly after she died.
Theory 2 – A Different Victim:
Roadkill accidents are extremely common. It’s possibly more plausible that this bone came from a different animal than the scapula because vehicular homicide happens every day when you consider small squirrels up to large bears and deer.
Off to the Lab!
We had to see if there was any way to get DNA out of the bones before they were cleaned. Fortunately, we had the forethought to do that before I began the intense process of cleaning and whitening them.Â
BEEP – BOOP – WHIRRR – BEEPBEEPBEEP
Through the magic of technology, Oliver received initial results. The bones were not from the same victim! It was time to compare the surveillance camera footage and personal photos of visitors to our organization chart to see if there were any deer missing.Â
We haven’t seen the following bucks in quite a while: Lawrence W. Elk, Buckwheat, and Starbuck. As for the ladies, I think two are missing, but it’s hard to tell which two. Since there have been times when over 8 of the herd were in the yard, it can feel like none are missing. However, I was able to notice buttons on one of the youngsters recently. One of those fawns is definitely a buck. I expected the antlers to be more visible by now since the velvet season is over. I don’t really know how they work. I do know that their nutrition affects antler growth as it does overall size.
Victimology:
Name: TBD
Age: 2+
Sex: The iliopubic eminence (IPE) has a lot of damage and visible marks from scavengers making it difficult to determine. Best guess is that this a buck.
Territory: Warren County, NJ
If those estimations are correct, it would seem that Starbuck might be our victim. My top expert is likely out hunting at the moment. I could email him and see if he gets back to me.
Case Findings:
Gus explored relatively new territory for him on the county’s land as we try to find safe alternatives to the land we can’t access anymore. One beautiful day, he was on that county land with opportunity to investigate all kinds of scents. I looked down and realized he had led me right to a bone!
The bone was easily determined to be a pelvis. We took it home and cleaned it. Measurements were taken. Oliver did some comparisons to other bones we have in our collection.
While there is room for error since the bone was found without other body parts, we believe this pelvis could have been a young male Jersey devil-deer called Starbuck.
The death was caused by an accidental vehicular impact (vehicular manslaughter). The driver has not been identified, but we believe it wasn’t a Tesla owner or it would have exploded when hitting a deer or even a squirrel
Case Status: Closed
Resources:
Edwards, J. Kenneth; Marchinton, R. Larry; Smith, Gladys F. “Pelvic Girdle Criteria for Sex Determination of White-Tailed Deer,” The Journal of Wildlife Management, April 1982, Vol. 46, No. 2, published by Wiley on behalf of the Wildlife Society. https://www.sylvanstimbersports.com/documents/deer_pelvic_girdle.pdf
