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Index of Subjects Yes. What your suggest is what I meant. Some bird or animal must have dropped it (the partially eaten remains or the whole snake) on the trail from above in the last 24hrs. And yes it was no doubt picked quite clean- but not that clean (meaning little smell and no fleshy bits whatsoever). I was surprised at how totally clean it must have become so quickly even if a bird had eaten the majority of the good stuff, they cannot do that good cleanup on their own. Just speculation and not important in any case. Logic is not my strong point. Nancy > On Aug 1, 2018, at 9:07 PM, Stephen Shaw <srshaw@Dal.Ca> wrote: > > Nancy, others: I never understood the logic of this deduction. > > You saw the dead snake only once (not twice), it was totally picked clean when you found it, but you never saw it fully fleshed out the day before, as you suppose it was. So you assumed it was dropped the day before fully fleshed and has been eaten up by insects very quickly, in just 24h. I breed blowflies and their larvae at least don’t work that fast even at these temperatures. Yes, idea [1] that certain insects did it that quickly may just be possible, but it seems improbable. > > What about idea [2]? — why not suppose instead that whatever dropped it there (a bird? -- a bunch of crows?) had already largely cleaned it up before dropping it, so its state when you found it had little or nothing to do with insect scavenging? Seems to me a more likely bet. > > Maybe it stiffened up eventually because it takes many hours for residual skeletal cartilage to dry out and harden, especially in high humidity, and you just came upon it fortuitously near the end of that drying process? > Steve > ------------------------------------------------------------- > On Aug 1, 2018, at 8:24 PM, NancyDowd <nancypdowd@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Thank you. It was Carrion Beetles I meant. Not sure why Scarab got into my head when I wrote. >> >> Whatever the diners, they are fast! >> >> Nancy >> >>> On Aug 1, 2018, at 10:53 AM, Randy Lauff <randy.lauff@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> I don't know of any Scarabs that are consumers of carrion...I've never found them on any carcass I've worked with. I occasionally get them in carrion-baited pitfalls, but that could just be by chance. >>> >>> Our ants are at best omnivores...again, I've rarely seen ants on a carcass that I've worked with. >>> >>> Blow Flies, Carrion Beetles (Silphidae), some Rove Beetles, and others feed on carrion. >>> >>> Randy >>> >>> _________________________________ >>> RF Lauff >>> Way in the boonies of >>> Antigonish County, NS. >>> >>> On 31 July 2018 at 11:10, NancyDowd <nancypdowd@gmail.com> wrote: >>> At least that is what I think it is- this is very near a lake so possibly a fish. What I find most interesting about this backbone is the speed at which the ants and/or Scarab beetles or? must have picked it clean. It was not on the woods trail 24hrs before I found it early this morning (last time I walked along that path) so was presumably dropped by a bird yesterday. Now its totally clean of flesh, little or no odour- very efficient work by the insects. It was still pliable when I picked it up but has hardened up since I brought it home. >>> https://www.flickr.com/photos/150605880@N07/43762551271/in/dateposted-public/ >>> https://www.flickr.com/photos/150605880@N07/43762554751/in/dateposted-public/ >>> >>> Nancy D >>> E Dalhousie, Kings >>> >>> >> >
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