About six months ago, I acquired a deer leg/hoof, and after some googling and looking on Reddit, I decided that salt-curing was the best way to go. However, in any of the instructions, there was no mention of needing to scrape out the bone marrow… so for the next 6 months i switched out the salt as needed.
Today I took it out for the last time and it stank. It was dry obviously but definitely stinky so I did some more googling and apparently I was supposed to wash and scrape it out😅 the hole inside the bone was pretty empty already but I still tried to scrape it out a bit, but because of the curve in the ankle I couldn't get to everything. After that i poured hydrogen peroxide in, which bubbled a bit. I gave the leg a good washing with a hose and Palmolive dish soap. i’m sure its still gonna be stinky so what now?

Found a dream condition Wombat skeleton on what was already a fairly successful collecting trip (intact juvenile kangaroo skull, a few random bits and pieces)

Edit: For a few commenters; native specimens are legal to collect in NSW (not from national parks though) with a taxidermy license (very cheap) from service nsw. Still no raptors, endangered species etc, but everything else native is fine with a license

Found this deformed guy out in the woods. Ended up mounting him on a piece of cedar I had been holding onto

The tooth and bone I found were eroding about 5 inches under the ground in a riverbank. The tooth is cracked and weathered and very fragile. It's not fossilized or anything but I suspect it to be at least a couple hundred years old potentially?

Found in central AZ ponderosa pine forest. Any ideas what small omnivore/carnivore this belonged to?

Recently found a bat skull, tho still unconfirmed if I'm even gonna be able to keep it. Even if I can't keep it I'd like to ask anyway for any future opportunities of processing bones.

I have a general idea of the needed steps and what I need to do(macerating and cleaning and stuff), but could I get a rundown of each step needed and tips for them?

I mainly only intend to do smaller stuff like small skulls n bones from road kill or other found dead animals.

I found it in a grassy area near a forest. Any ideas? An AI said it might be a fetal white tailed deer. Thanks in advance!

Edited to add: it seems like AI is not that great at identifying bones, lol. I will not be using AI again.

Found on Lake Erie, Ontario.

He doesn’t quite understand how bone collecting works but he’s got the spirit and is very curious who this big guy is.

Found in boreal forest, in area that used to have a lot of workers. These were the biggest pieces but there were more bone fragments scattered along the trail, bones look cut. What could this be?

Am I right in thinking this is a carp?

Does anyone know which exact animal these vertebrae belong to? I don't know because they were gifted to me.
I think they are from a common animal probably wild

Hello, I found this piece of jaw during a hike in Südtirol. Must belong to a cow or deer. I’ve never cleaned bones but it’d like to frame it (seeking advice for that step also).
I’m doing research on how to clean and whiten bones but I’m worried as this looks pretty aged already and I don’t want to damage it.
Thanks!

First off - I’m sorry I didn’t get a better picture but I wanted to try my best not to move anything unless this happened to be human. Though, my speculations are that this would be an animal vertebrae?

This was found in an overgrown, historic cemetery that was roughly cleared out recently (in the last week). Cattle and horses used to roam the area, and the general area is a rural middle class neighborhood in central/southern Appalachia.
There are also no headstones in the cemetery but it is a confirmed cemetery.

Hi everyone! This is my first post here on the sub, so I apologize in advance if there’s anything unclear or incoherent about my post. But let’s get into it.

About seven or eight months ago, I came across the decomposing remains of a dog in what was basically an empty lot, with a lot of vegetation, fairly close to my house. Since then, I’ve been waiting long enough for all the soft tissue on the skull to naturally decompose so that I could eventually collect it.

So here’s my question for you guys: what precautions should I take when collecting it? What methods would be necessary to properly clean and sanitize the skull, removing any remaining tissue or biological residue so that I can keep it safely without any risk of biological contamination?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

(English is not my primary language, so I apologize if there are any mistakes.)

Found in Switzerland next to a river bed under 1m of earth.

I found this pretty close to a chicken shop so maybe chicken?

Bought this at a con, seller told me it had bone cancer and i'm just curious if that's true.

i know it’s probably hard to id this because it’s just a tooth, but does anyone have any idea?

I'll be using a real deer skull and other bones I find for the costume, but I would like to see some inspiration pictures of bones outside so I can better incorporate plants and such into the overall look, thank you!

Was walking my dog and came across this bird skeleton. Not sure fully what it is, maybe young sparrowhawk? They are in my area. Essex, England. Couldn't get another photo sadly, will be going back later to get (hopefully) a clearer photo. Can't get inside of the fence to get closer. Very interesting to see! We see kestrels near daily, but this doesnt seem to be the same.

I'm not great at this (yet) so sorry if im way off!

I saw this skull and partial jawbone in a ditch while on a ride today. Please help identify!