Social Distancing Outdoors

On Friday, my husband and I decided to take a walk through the Dismal Swamp - one of the last remaining wetlands in urban New Jersey - with our infant son. My husband had driven past the signs for the preserve many times on grocery store runs since we moved to the area in the fall, but had never stopped. With the weather cooperating and us feeling a little stir crazy, we set out on the Songbird Trail with high hopes.

My loves on the trail

We made it easily through the clearing - the mud wasn't too bad and it was too early in the season for mosquitoes - but we didn't see any wildlife. We could definitely hear insects and birds, but they were apparently camera shy. It surprised us to find ourselves on another road (New York Blvd) so soon so we decided to cross to continue on. We saw a couple of houses ahead on a small road and decided to swing right along an abandoned railroad track. Here's when the swamp really started living up to its name.

All sorts of trash littered either side of the path - some in garbage bags, some strewn loose about the landscape. Discarded alcohol containers and other food waste, tires, even furniture! We remarked to each other that it was good that the baby was in a carrier and not able to roam around on his own. And how it was unlikely that we would come back...

A short distance along the trail - still near the shotgun style house on a cinder block foundation - our dog started rolling on the ground. The way that she does to signal she's found something particularly foul. Sure enough she was rolling in tuffs of black and white fur. I looked ahead just a bit and found the source.

Mystery Carcass

Much to my husband's amusement, I took the time to carefully document the critter - which I assumed was a skunk based on the fur coloration and the size of the body.

Decomposing Toes Can Still be Cute?

Death Doesn't Stop Life or Beetle Sex on the Skull

We continued along our way, following the railroad tracks, trying to avoid the trash and remarking on the signs warning the area on our left was contaminated (with what?!?). When we got within sight of the end of the path, we stumbled across another skull.

Mystery Skull #2

Definitely a rodent

I'll be honest - even though I knew it was a rodent looking at the front teeth - I assumed it was a possum based on the size of the skull. I'm a geneticist after all and not a mammalogist or ecologist. I knew that #ScienceTwitter would set things right once I got home and uploaded my finds. I was not disappointed.

Skull 1 = Opossum & Skull 2 = Groundhog (aka marmot)

You'd think the story ends there, but upon the urging of some friends and a student, we decided to make the trip back to the trail yesterday to pick up the bones. I do teach forensic science after all. Husband and baby waited patiently while I ran back to grab the skulls in plastic ShopRite bags with nitrile gloves on (yes, we always have these around the house for cleaning, not just because of COVID-19). When I came upon the groundhog skull, I noticed that not too far off from it were several other bones we hadn't noticed the day before, though I am sure they were there considering the weathering they display. I'm pretty sure they are deer bones, though I could certainly be wrong again (#ScienceTwitter do your thing please).

Femur

Broken scapula?

Vertebrae

Of course as I was photographing these new finds with my bright blue gloves (plastic bags burgeoning with skulls), a jogger came down the path. He raised his eyebrows at me. To which I very gracefully blurted, "I'm a forensic science teacher. I'm grabbing these bones for my students." He gave a surprised "Oh", then went a little ways down the trail, turned around and ran back the other direction. So yeah. Hopefully I didn't get reported to the police for suspicious behavior. And I hope this post finds everyone well enough to enjoy the outdoors separately too.

Want to learn more about bones? This is an amazing blog by a teenage self taught naturalist Jake McGowan-Lowe.