My skull collection

Mammals

Badger, Meles meles

Mummy found this skull in 2001 at the Goyt Valley.  It is  12.3cm long.  This is the best mammal skull of my collection, and probably one of my favourites.  It is also the third largest skull in my collection, after the sheep’s and the great black-backed gull.

Sheep

I have two sheep skulls, one ram and one ewe.  I remember finding the ewe’s skull at Minninglow last year.  This lives in my den in the garden.  The ram’s skull is the largest in my collection, and it won’t fit in my draw, so we’ve put it on my shelves.  The ram was one mummy’s first skulls that she ever collected and she was 12 years old.

Rat, Rattus norvegicus

We found this skull in the patio at home, or the “patioff” as we call it.  We’ve saved one of the lower jaws and the thigh bones.  A rat’s skull is way bigger than one of a mouse.

Wood mouse

I found this skull just by chance when I was clearing up glass for where the stream is going to go.  It is my smallest skull of all, and I’m surprised it’s so small  It is only 1.1cm long.

Mole

We found a whole dead mole in the field at home, and we managed to clean its skull, even though we’ve only got half of it!  It is 1.5cm long.

Rabbits

Roe deer, Capreolus capreolus

We didn’t find this skull, but we bought ten roe deer skulls for coat hangers, but I got to keep one.  It is my only deer skull.

Cat, Felis sylvestris

Mummy found this skull at our old house when she was gardening.  Its teeth are really sharp, but one is loose and when we cleaned it up with hydrogen peroxide, we nearly lost it.  It is 9cm long.

Shrew,

Birds

Great black-backed gull, Larus marinus

Mummy found this skull on a beach in Glenelg in Scotland.  It my largest bird skull and my only gull skull.  It is 12.5cm long.

Pink-footed geese,

We went to Snettisham in Norfolk, we found two pink-footed skulls.  We’ve already prepared one but there’s still one that isn’t quite ready yet.