Another Cold Case - Dead stuff within!!!!

[JonathanD]

OK, who can ID this spinal column. It was taken in a small glen on the outskirts of my local woodland. No people go down there and literally within feet of this is an ancient badger sett with about 15 outlying entrances, four of which have been in use by a fox and her cubs. The woodland edge looks onto a crop field with a neighbouring field holding sheep. Pretty much a cert that it's a fox kill, but what is it

I have included my knife for scale (same length as a Woodlore, but wider by about 7mm).

 

[Spaniel man]

Small lamb or fawn would be my guess, given the time of year. It hard to tell, it's been well munched by badgers/foxes!!

 

[Goatboy]

Oh dear,

Unusually hot weather, armed men in the woods, spinal columns strewn everywhere... I can hear a teutonic voice say " What's got Billy so spooked?...."

Run gentlemen.:AR15firin

GB

 

[HillBill]

I'm not sure tbh. 2 things spring to mind though. small fox/ hare

I'm swaying towards fox. It seems to have some bone structure where the tail would be, the shape at the right of the top 2 pics looks similar to how a fox carries its tail.

 

[JonathanD]

My immediate thought when I saw it was that it was one of the cubs that had bitten the dust and was put to good use by it's brethren afterwards. There were originally six cubs that had grown to a decent size, but I've only ever seen two in the last couple of weeks. My other thought was a lamb taken by the vixen. No deer around here, or hare.

At the mo, I'm leaning towards cub-icide.

 

[HillBill]

Maybe the badgers munched it