Halloween with Peccary and Kaibab Squirrel

A visitor to my blog described my explorations as “recycling after what the coyotes leave behind.” I think there is some truth to it and here is an illustration:

... I found an almost intact peccary (javelina) skull weathered in the desert for more than a year. On another occasion I came across a vertebral column of a deer with pelvic bones attached. So, decided to create a Halloween display!

The skull was in pieces but all the pieces, except parietal ones, were scattered around. So I reconstructed the skull by gluing the pieces together. To cover the parietal area I used ground squirrel skin; and for the totally missing occipital area rabbit skin and fur came handy. Finaly, I used peacock feathers to give the hollow ocular area character, even giving the illusion of the absent lacrimal bone.

Here is the result:

But I needed more to make it a Halloween piece. So, I reinforced the spinal column with two steel rods and perched the peccary skull upon it. A river rock provided a good fit for the pelvic bone and voila!

The last touch was to make use of the preserved Kaibab squirrel skins I had.  These squirrels are unique to the Grand Canyon area in Arizona. Read about them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaibab_squirrel

So, once again, I used everything that the coyotes (and perhaps the increasing numbers of Mexican wolves) left behind.

October 29, 2017

©Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2017