There's something in the water...

 

Halloween is a night to have fun and be scared.  What's scarier than a lifeless skull staring at you from the bottom of a flowing stream?

If you venture out tonight, be safe and have fun!

Quigley Creek Porcupines

Last year during a plant survey at the Quigley Creek Natural Area I found the remains of a dead North American Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum).

North American Porcupine skeleton

A couple of weeks ago (20 MAY 2015), during a return trip to Quigley Creek, we found a porcupine den tree.  This hollow tree has probably been occupied by a porcupine for months.  The ground beneath the tree was covered by a thick layer of scat.

Porcupine den tree

Look what I found...

Those empty eye sockets staring back at you belong to an American Mink (Neovison vison).  The skull was almost perfectly clean, but has a little lingering smell.  It is now resting on my desk in a jar of borax (sodium tetraborate decahydrate) to get rid of the smell.  In the fall it will be used in my Michigan Mammals program.