Strange sight in the woods

[jojo]

I went for a walk in Waveney Woods, near Fritton Lake today and found this strange and rather spooky sight up a tree.

These pics were taken with a camera phone and so they are a bit small.

The ribs ends had all been gnawed. I looked around but did not find anymore bones, the skull is missing. The thing is stuck in the fork between the trunk and branch, about 6 feet off the ground, the tree is a birch. The only thing I can think of to account for finding it up there is that the creature died on the ground and the tree grew and carried it up with it. From the size of the spine, I think its either a fox or perhaps a badger, but I am not sure.

What d you think?

 

[Toddy]

I'd be astonished if that is what caused the skeleton to be there. I would have expected the bones to disarticulate as the soft tissues, the tendons and the like, decayed. I think that that would have happened long before the years it would take for the tree to grow.........no idea how the skeleton got up there other wise though.....maybe someone threw it up, or it was dragged up by a big cat
Not the sort of thing you expect to trip over in a British woodland though
Sure it's a carnivore ? If it were a deer or a sheep or the like I could see someone putting it up a tree out of the way of scavengers until they got back for it, and maybe they didn't

Interesting to find out though

cheers,
Toddy

 

[hiraeth]

Would not have thought the tree growing and carrying it is possible, more likely its been put there.(perhaps its a cat and the fire brigade never got the call)

 

[jojo]

This is about 2 feet long, the bit on the left, I think is the pelvis and the ribs at the other end. I really have no idea what it is, I thought it was too small to be a deer. Most peculiar though. Never thought of a BIG cat Mind you, with the number of dogs there and the mountains of dog c**p everywhere and in piles of plastic bags full of dog poo (vile) I think any self respecting cat would run away! Just spooky seeing it up there.

Maybe its not as old as it looks, the tree is quite young, 12 to 14 ft tall, it seems to be quite solid, sort of not ready to fall apart yet.

 

[Toddy]

We need a bones specialist, not me I'm afraid. It looks like dog based on this site
http://www.wsu.edu:8000/~crd/skeldog.html

maybe ?

cheers,
Toddy

 

[BOD]

... Never thought of a BIG cat Mind you, with the number of dogs there and the mountains of dog c**p everywhere and in piles of plastic bags full of dog poo (vile) I think any self respecting cat would run away! .

Big cats here see dogs as a meal!

 

[BorderReiver]

I'd be astonished if that is what caused the skeleton to be there. I would have expected the bones to disarticulate as the soft tissues, the tendons and the like, decayed. I think that that would have happened long before the years it would take for the tree to grow.........no idea how the skeleton got up there other wise though.....maybe someone threw it up, or it was dragged up by a big cat
Not the sort of thing you expect to trip over in a British woodland though
Sure it's a carnivore ? If it were a deer or a sheep or the like I could see someone putting it up a tree out of the way of scavengers until they got back for it, and maybe they didn't

Interesting to find out though

cheers,
Toddy

I have been known to throw manky corpses up into trees to stop my bloody dogs rolling on 'em.

 

[deeps]

Lord Lucan ?

 

[tommy the cat]

Funny I found a skull in a tree on sunday! It was in a wood I wondered into while tracking deer , I shouldn't have been in there (got carried away with the tracking) so was a bit spooky.
Small carnivore skull which I guess someone had stuck in the tree?!?!
Bit too Blair witch for me though.
Dave

 

[thewanderer]

the skeletal remains could be of a small deer as seen to be no obvious sign of a long tail and bones appear large for a fox
as to being in tree Gamekeepers stalkers will often hang shot foxes from fences as a deterent to others but also a sign that area is hunted etc
but as a post i have just sent regarding a carcass of a deer i found apprx 8ft up a tree it could be sign of a cat

 

[Ex Member - Sidney Bounty]

their be Dragons!

 

[hog]

Not realy the type of tree a big cat would use. Ive seen leopards drag their kill into trees and they are a lot mor substantial than that thin little birch.

 

[Shewie]

I reckon it`s either dog or fox looking those piccies, I think a sheep pelvis has a wider gate. I could be wrong though, I usually am.

Given the fact that more foxes are likely to be killed in the countryside than dogs I`d go with fox. Somebody probably took a liking to the skull and slung the rest up there.

 

[Grooveski]

I've seen deer and sheep carcasses that far up trees before after flooding.
Just a thought.

 

[Sniper]

An old forester I knew told of a fox that had a go at a mature stag cos it got too close to it's cubs and the stag rammed it with it's antlers and as it's head was thrown upwards it threw the fox (by now dead) up in the air and it landed on top of a hedge. Perhaps something similar happened here.

 

[AJB]

Blair Witch?

 

[Tengu]

I was thinking leopard too.

Is there one in your area? We have one here.

 

[Paganwolf]

Theres no way those branches would ever take a big cat even if there was any in the uk looks like the sort of thing i would do to stop my dogs making a B line for it every time i went for a walk in the woods with em!

 

[Aaron]

Maybe this?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovi-djkUgd0

It did the same thing to Jim Hopper and his men.

 

[jojo]

I had forgotten about this thread! The tree would be too small for a large cat. I'll have to go back now and see if it's still there and take better pictures.