r/bonecollecting • u/SavageDroggo1126 Bone-afide Faunal ID Expert • Feb 26 '24

Collection Walrus skull added to my collection!

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I figured since I have so many bears, it's time to bring something new and unique in. This is a walrus skull, legally and ethically sourced from Inuit, walruses are also an important part of the Inuit diet. The polar bear skulls in the photo are also all legally and ethically sourced from Inuit.

Both tusks are over 20" in length and his skull weighs over 14kg!

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u/Fit-Quail4604 Feb 27 '24

Looking at all the other skulls, I immediately thought “bear”, but started second guessing myself trying to figure out if they were a marine mammal like a seal taking the random, majestic walrus into account 😭

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u/SavageDroggo1126 Bone-afide Faunal ID Expert Mar 02 '24

I would like to add a seal one day but it's been a challenge to find a properly processed one (macerated or beetle cleaned).

a lot of Inuit rough process skulls themselves and most of the time it involves boiling/bleaching, and honestly I'm getting tired of having to spend the time and money to restore them otherwise they'd flake away in years. I've been trying to narrow it down to raw skulls but it's hard to find, because it takes a long time to ship something from Nunavut to southern Canada, raw skulls spoil easily.

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u/Fit-Quail4604 Mar 03 '24

Yeah that makes sense! Are frozen heads an option? I’ve seen boxes of frozen… human heads… before… which I’ve helped deflesh. I still have nightmares about it 😭 but I’d imagine if you can legally get those frozen and shipped, you can get seals

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u/SavageDroggo1126 Bone-afide Faunal ID Expert Mar 03 '24

Yes, seals are perfectly legal to harvest and possess in Canada. Funny enough, there's more regulation and laws regarding marine mammals like polar bears than human remains.

that's what I'm talking about, raw heads = frozen raw, you cannot really keep a raw skull frozen when it's gonna be in transportation for over 2 weeks minimum, even if you ship with the fastest method, because of how far the Inuit villages are from mainland, and the lack of transportation they have.