Album Strange Things

napatony13 · Apr 30, 2021

Something I came across while up in the mountains above Napa. The skeleton was mostly complete and laying a in a small clearing. I saw it from some distance away assumed it was going to be a deer. Anyone recognize what it is?

Outdoor_Fool · Apr 30, 2021

Took a while to orient my brain on the skull position but sure looks like a mule deer.

napatony13 · Apr 30, 2021

Outdoor_Fool said:
Took a while to orient my brain on the skull position but sure looks like a mule deer.

That would be unusual as we only have blacktails out here. But not a deer...neck is much longer.

Outdoor_Fool · May 1, 2021

I can't claim to be able to differentiate subspecies' skeletons from a photo.

OK, I'll go with Columbian black tailed deer. Length of neck appears to be very typical of a deer. I can count 6 vertebrae so it's only missing one.

Unless you are thinking it's some exotic species of deer that escaped a ranch or something. Then it's a member of the deer family, most likely.

napatony13 · May 1, 2021

napatony13 said:
But not a deer...neck is much longer.

May not look it in the photo but neck is close to twice as long as a deer's...also neck is oriented different than a deer's is. Escaped exotic is on the right track!

3d3vart · May 1, 2021

napatony13 said:
May not look it in the photo but neck is close to twice as long as a deer's...also neck is oriented different than a deer's is. Escaped exotic is on the right track!

Roo.

napatony13 · May 1, 2021

3d3vart said:
Roo.

I can see that, but no...it's a quadruped.

Outdoor_Fool · May 2, 2021

Did you notice a long tail on the skeleton? When I really zoom in there appears to be sections of a long tail (longer than a deer) but hard to say. If so I’d go with llama/alpaca.

napatony13 · May 2, 2021

Outdoor_Fool said:
I’d go with llama/alpaca.

We have a winner! It took me a few minutes because I'd never seen a skeleton with that long vertical neck. Then I remembered that that on the other side of the ridge I was on (about 2 miles as the crow flies) there was a ranch with a little herd of llamas. This one must have escaped.