Skull of Eurasian badger (Meles meles)

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:13 pm

Hi folks,

I have to thank Doug for the idea of photographing this skull and indirectly for loan of the skull so that I could shoot it. I'll explain:

I was telling a dog walking buddy of mine how impressed I'd been with Doug's recent Forum posting, Cat Skull and my friend said "Well I've got an old badger skull if you want to have a go at photographing that..."

Skull is 14 cm (5.5 inches) long.

Taken with my Minolta A2 on tripod - both stacks of ~12 frames using CombineZM.

Bruce

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 2:25 pm

"Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well."

Hey a really nice composition here. Probably the closest you will ever get to a Badger and survive the outcome. Really a nice set of shots here Bruce.

Mike B in OKlahoma · Post by **Mike B in OKlahoma** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:10 pm

Very good. Did you set up the background using studio technique, or shoot the skull in a mundane setting, and Photoshop it onto the nice bg?

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:12 pm

Excellent Photos Bruce. The lighting really sets off a lot of the features IMO. I really like the fact that this skull is very weathered and looks very old. My cat skull looks too...let me say "clinical looking". V

ery nice Bruce...tell your friend we all said "Thanks"

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 5:51 pm

Thanks for your encouraging comments guys.

Ken - Sadly the only badgers I'm likely to come across are road kills and where I live in the UK I see their bodies at the side of the road far too regularly.

Mike - I shot the skull in a light tent with a couple of cheap halogen table lamps for illumination. I used a black back/base cloth but unfortunately it's slightly reflective and produced too many distracting highlights, so in the end I had to replace the background in Photoshop in both shots.

Doug - As well as your cat I had a good look at your beaver skull postings before setting up the badger shots. I was mainly interested in how you'd set up etc., however it was interesting to note the very prominent skull sutures on the young beaver whereas there are none visible on the badger's skull.

I haven't Googled it yet (I will) but I'm guessing it will have something to do with ease/difficulty of passing through birth canal OR maybe amount/rate of growth of the animal's brain? Hey - or maybe it's to do with the age of the badger. Interesting isn't it....

I'll send my friend a link to this posting

Bruce

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 8:38 am

Interesting stuff, Bruce.

I'm not into stacking yet.
Seems that badger liked sweets. Some caries there if I see right.

Planapo · Post by **Planapo** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 11:29 am

Bruce, you did an excellent job with these! They look as if taken from a well made textbook. Pictures like these convince me more and more that I have to get into this z-stacking technique.

And yes, the open sutures or fontanellas in the skull are there to enable brain and skull-skeleton growth and therefore found in juveniles. Hence this badger´s skull comes from a mature animal.
Interestingly, it takes quite time until certain fontanellas are fully closed, in humans sometimes up to the age of twenty something. Different fontanellas closing at different times is a characteristic used in forensic medicine to determine the age of the juvenile skull.

Cheerio.
Betty

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 1:37 pm

Nikola - Dental caries, I think you're right - there is also evidence of some very neat maxillary bridge work, and extensive alveolus damage (upper right 3rd molar) suggests a botched extraction at some time.

I'm relatively new to stacking software too (I used to do it manually in Photoshop with just 2 or 3 frames) but now I'm total convinced and would not be without it.

Betty - Thank you for your very encouraging words and also for the interesting info on cranial sutures.

Bruce

MacroLuv · Post by **MacroLuv** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 1:49 pm

Hey Betty, do you work for "CSI: Miami" or something like that?

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 3:54 pm

I have a bit more information about this particular badger's skull.

The chap who found the skull (Andy) told me that he found it in the spoil heap of a badger's sett.

From what I've since read it seems that when an old badger knows that he or she is about to die they move deep into their sett and just lay down and die. In fact some people believe that they collapse the entrance to their chosen chamber, effectively earthing themselves in. Then, perhaps years later a young badger comes along and decides to re-excavate this old sett and in the process turfs out the bones of the long dead previous occupant.

This skull has VERY worn teeth, which suggests an old animal, so it would appear quite likely (particularly as it was found on a badger's spoil heap) that this skull may have a similar history.

Bruce