My Dermestids are now freelancing for USFWS

[Bigboy]

The USFWS has brought me a cottontail skull to clean up with my beetles in order to figure out if it is a New England Cottontail (endangered) or an Eastern Cottontail. I thought I'd make a thread so you guys can follow along.

The package

The goods

Hard at work, though I spooked some off when I opened the lid

 

[Texas Blonde]

That is sooooo awesome, thanks for sharing! I can't wait to get my Dermestids, my freezer is already overflowing with odds and ends from work. I love your picture threads, definitely an inspiration.

 

[Edd Eskimo]

That was very very interesting...You don't see this every day on AB

 

[Deroplatys]

So if it was endangered it even more so now

 

[Bigboy]

That is sooooo awesome, thanks for sharing! I can't wait to get my Dermestids, my freezer is already overflowing with odds and ends from work. I love your picture threads, definitely an inspiration.

Thanks for the compliment. I bet you'll have a blast once you get a colony going. Try looking on taxidermy.net for beetles. Last I looked 1000+ shipped for around $75.

So if it was endangered it even more so now

Well, the unfortunate thing was that it wasn't supposed to die. Trapping any small mammal can be risky but they were doing it for a radio collaring program. This one died in the trap. Keep in mind though that traps get checked twice a day. Eastern and New England Cottontails look pretty much exactly the same. You can't ever be sure of what you have without a genetic test or by looking at the skull morphology of an individual. That is about where I come in. I can let them know what it is in a couple of days. Much faster than DNA testing.
New England Cottontails used to be everywhere but now because of habitat loss they're practically gone. I'm just glad to get to work on this. Practically everyone I have worked with before is now working on NEC projects.

 

[8by8]

If it is hard to tell the two species of rabbit apart, how will USFWS know which ones to tag? Will they be tagging both species? What ever they decide to do , I commend you and everyone working on this project. Conservation is one of the greatest gifts we can give.

 

[Bigboy]

If it is hard to tell the two species of rabbit apart, how will USFWS know which ones to tag? Will they be tagging both species? What ever they decide to do , I commend you and everyone working on this project. Conservation is one of the greatest gifts we can give.

Each rabbit that gets captured has a tissue sample taken from it. That is then analyzed to determine the species. The collar allows them to follow the animal through its daily life and learn more about its natural history. As of now, people don't really know much about the differences between the two.

Here is the skull as of this morning. Fairly certain at this point it is from an Eastern Cottontail. Interestingly though if you notice the wear on the lower incisors it looks like this individual rabbit preferred to snip its food more to the right side of its mouth.

 

[koolkid98]

Kewl.I have a few i don't clean anything though.Fun to keep as pets.Easy to take care of when your busy.

 

[koolkid98]

BTW whats the substrate?I don't use any.

 

[Bigboy]

It was sheets of styrofoam and the occasional piece of paper towel. They make it into an actual substrate themselves.

 

[cacoseraph]

Much faster than DNA testing.

and MUCH cheaper!



nice dude!

 

[koolkid98]

Wow i thought it was like mattress stuff.

 

[koolkid98]

Anything new?

 

[codykrr]

ok, so not to throw this off topic. but im going to be purchasing a 250 mixed lot of these in a few weeks. im kinda confused on care though. some sites say sub, some say no...lots of mixed info. one thing is true, is that's most people use 1/4 inch thick Styrofoam slabs as bases for there bones.

anyway, is there anyway you could reference me to a decent care sheet or give me a decent run down of how you keep them. id like to have the colony in the thousands before nov-dec. if possible.

i would appreciate any help.
Ps. if it matters the biggest things i would be working with would be a deer skull, mostly small stuff.

would 2000 be a decent amount to clean a deer skull in a weeks time?

 

[koolkid98]

Yeah it should be depends i'd what till most are larvae seems to make them eat more.From the four i started with i have around 30+ and thats only after 3 months.Plus i had to wait for the orignal larvae to mature and all that.