Taxidermy- How long will it take a mummified fox to decay and leave a skeleton?
by admin on Sunday, July 25th, 2010 | 2 Comments
I found a dead fox in an abandoned barn, it’s already pretty mummified. I was wondering how long it would take for the skin to naturally decay away so that I could mount the skeleton? Would I have to remove it from the shelter of the barn? I’m in Maine so the weather is in the upper 70′s now but when fall rolls around the decaying process might come to a halt?
Any advice is appreciated!
If you want it to decay quickly, bury it. I did this to a deer skull, and it was just pure bone in a few months.
Weeks if not years to turn to bone. I actually know a guy with a maggot chamber for cleaning to the bone. Insects do most of the work but the bones get scattered.