Finley Murder Mystery

[Pam and Randy Comeleo]

I know it’s a bit early for some Halloween fun, but we found this little skeleton in the attached photos at Finley recently and wondered if anyone has any idea what it might be.

 

The bony bits were partially buried under a mat of brownish fur.  There was a patch of white fur mixed in with the brown, sort of like the white markings on the chests of some mixed breed dogs.

 

Happy sleuthing!

 

-Pam

[Don Boucher]

Hi Pam & Randy,

It seems to Lisa and me that it's a Striped Skunk, due to the teeth. I'm not counting on the color of the fur because it might have been stained by the decaying carcass and other factors. Compare these photos of both Raccoon and Striped Skunk skulls. On the striped skunk, the top incisors take up more space between the canines (like your specimen) than on the raccoon. On the top teeth of the skunk skull, the tiny tooth behind (distal to) the canine is much closer to the canine than it does on the raccoon. There's also a similar small tooth on the lower jaw in the same position but on this raccoon it's missing, but some raccoons have it. Your specimen matches the lower jaw of the skunk we show here. Finally a skunk's lower canine has a tight curve at its base, like your specimen, but a raccoon's lower canine has a shallow, continuous curve.

BTW. It's not a Red Fox or Gray fox because the snout is too short, and foxes' teeth are more spaced apart. It's also not a River Otter because the snout is too long, and otters' teeth are more packed together. Weasels are too small for your specimen.

Don Boucher

Corvallis

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[Pam and Randy Comeleo]

WOW! Thank you for solving the case and providing such a thorough post-mortem analysis!  -Pam