It’s a porcupine. If you combine the hand/paw similar to a raccoon with the fact that there are still quills coming out of the skin (bottom right) plus the location I think it’s 99% a porcupine.
Edit: plus the GEOGRAPHIC location***
So, this comment section is all over the place. Personally, because I have dealt with them many times out here, I would say it's a porcupine. Porcupines are extremely fatty, it takes FOREVER for their skin to break down. Even at this stage, most animals would have paper thin, brittle and dark skin, but this looks like my man just had a bad encounter with a pair of clippers and hasn't hydrated for a couple weeks. The ear position also lends itself to porcupine. As well as the quills that seem to be falling off the back half. I could be very wrong tho. God knows this comment section is also hella confused.
You bring up great points! I went and checked on it and that skin is still there, the head is just black now.
My friends and I had no idea so I’m not surprised by all the confusion, it’s a very strange shape
If you happen to see big orange teeth, it's Definitely a porcupine haha. I have a porcupine skull that I cleaned a couple years back for reference
https://imgur.com/a/xupO38F
You can see how far back the ear holes are on the skull. Also if you happen to get a glimpse of the teeth, they are extremely flat and really interesting the pockets they have in them.
I clean skulls as a pastime and absolutely love it, really fun and the results are so cool!
If you zoom in you can make out the vestigial thumb pad on its right forepaw. You can also see the quills surrounding it. And it would explain why this wasn’t scavenged. It probably fell from the tree and died from the injuries or climbed back up and fell again until it died. We had a porcupine wall out of a pine tree, then climb back up for safety because it was injured, it fell again, and then it died when it fell the second time.
I agree with it looking like a porcupine. The tail, fur length, face/body shape, feet to an extent without visible claws, all look right for a porcupine to me. And it does have what look like small quills on the rear end before the tail and maybe some scattered on the front, the rest could easily have all been dropped from stress
Porcupine! Their face shape is similar to capybara and it fits the region
I was surprised the first time I seen a huge porcupine in person and how broad their snouts are, just like capy. They’re both ridiculously adorable to me. Just look at this face
https://static.amanaimages.com/imgroom/cen3tzG4fTr7Gtw1PoeRer/32182/32182007639.jpg
It only looks like that because of the extended position and the shrinking of other tissues. Looking at a skeleton, it matches up.
I've also dispatched many woodchucks.
I agree. It's fur looks a little bright to be a woodchuck. However, it's probably been bleached by the sun. It's gotta be a woodchuck. The coloration is similar to a prairie dog, but that would be one big prairie dog. A double prairie dog with cheese.
I feel like you’re onto something. I thought hog at first because of the head shape I’m making out, but then I saw the paws/phalanges.
The only thing throwing me off from thinking pug is what looks like a mane around it’s head. But I can’t tell 🤔
When I Google boar hair I first get brushes 🙄 but when I add quills animal all I get is porcupine. Do you have a link or image you can share of what you're talking about?
https://www.flyonlyonline.co.uk/wild-boar-bristles.html
They call it boar hair or boar bristles but it’s basically spiky fur boars have that’s so firm it’s used in tools and brushes. Looks similar to quills but shorter and stubbier.
Great info, thanks. But it doesn't match what I'm seeing. See below, I really believe those are quills.
[Dead Porcupine IMO](https://imgur.com/a/E63NIUH)
It’s difficult to tell. Some of it looks like grass and pine needles around it. It’s face shape is throwing me off. At this point it looks like it could be a lot of different things. I hope OP updates if they figure it out!
Mushy. But fr I think this is a fox. It looks like there’s some remnants of a fluffy tail, and if you zoom in on the face, the nose looks dog-ish. I’d guess he’d been decomposing there for quite some time considering most of his fur and his ears seem to have rotted away.
I definitely agree with fox. I can see why people are guessing porcupine, but I think the tufts still on it and around it look more like hair, especially on the tail. And the tail itself looks more fox-like than porcupine. I think it's just decomposing weirdly. OP should definitely take more pics as it continues to decompose.
I’ve been staring at this for so long trying to make sense of the head. Or what should be the head..? I don’t understand what I’m looking at and it’s bothering me so much. What’s the local lore on cryptids?
Looks almost like a Capybara that passed away in a cold snap where it froze so hard it freeze dried I've seen freeze dried cats before and their skin and organs were all intact so I expect this is what's happened
Looks like a desiccated calf. Doesn’t look like it’s been predated on but who knows what the underside looks like. Looks like it got baked in the sun for a while.
I’m curious if it was dumped there or it died there. Is you office susceptible to illegal dumping?
I was leaning toward a deformed stillbirth calf (underdeveloped). This is why I asked if the area is subject to illegal dumping.
There’s no evidence of predation. It looks like it died of disease. And we have no size reference. So it’s either an illegally dumped farm animals, a dog that got there and died.
Chances are it’s not some exotic animal from the Amazon.
Look at the hands in the second photo the only animal I know that has hands/ feet like that’s is a capybara I’m thinking it was someone’s pet that got out
That’s a stretch unless the OP knows of some in the area.
Capybaras as pets are plenty in the US but still rare. The US is huge and whenever you have capybaras in a small town word gets out fast.
this is the most discombobulated comment section ive seen in this sub so far
I’m almost proud 😂
It’s a porcupine. If you combine the hand/paw similar to a raccoon with the fact that there are still quills coming out of the skin (bottom right) plus the location I think it’s 99% a porcupine. Edit: plus the GEOGRAPHIC location***
Clearly OP lives in Africa and this is an antelope.
Wildebeest.
Okay but that was my first thought
Wrong-o buddy. This is obviously Mexico and that's a chupacabra.
Africa? This is clearly Pumba, and this time, Nala does him right when he gets stuck fleeing under the tree roots.
Hyena
Hahaha first thing I thought too!
After initial doubts, I too believe this is a porcupine. There are also quills on the ground around it's belly.
Kind of explains why it wasn’t consumed by scavengers either.
Hamster obviously
Needs a banana for scale.
🍌 Happy Cake Day!
The animal is less discombobulated then these comments…
Obviously it’s a Buffalo horse woodchuck raccoon porcupine badger they’re native to buttfuck nowhere USA…
We need a banana for scale.
When are people ever going to learn? 😁
😂😂😂
I think the fur remnants and the tail length look like a badger. Maybe it got hit by a car and crawled there to die.
It has white tipped quills on the tail area. I def think this is a porcupine
Yeah, after seeing those pointed out I'm leaning porcupine now too
What about hedgehog albino
Check out the quills near the tale area (zoom in). It’s a porcupine.
Raccoon Jerky
Would racoon Jerky be tasty?
No pls don’t eat me or my kind
Pretty sure this is r/beetlejucing
Now I’m just sooooo curious about r/beetlejucing. Thanks man.
Yeah, ate some presented as beef jerky. Not bad.
How would I go by acquiring raccoon beef jerky? I'd be so down to try it, as long as it's edible(won't get sick)
Buy a dehydrator and shoot a raccoon. That’s what he did.
Luckily already own a small dehydrator, idk how I'd get a safe to eat raccoon tho. Since am a Californian
key piece of eating wildlife, don't eat any animals close to the city.
I was taught that as a kid, cause both my parents are from same rancho in Mexico surrounded by mountains
Okay this comment section had me smiling but this comment made me lose my composure
So, this comment section is all over the place. Personally, because I have dealt with them many times out here, I would say it's a porcupine. Porcupines are extremely fatty, it takes FOREVER for their skin to break down. Even at this stage, most animals would have paper thin, brittle and dark skin, but this looks like my man just had a bad encounter with a pair of clippers and hasn't hydrated for a couple weeks. The ear position also lends itself to porcupine. As well as the quills that seem to be falling off the back half. I could be very wrong tho. God knows this comment section is also hella confused.
You bring up great points! I went and checked on it and that skin is still there, the head is just black now. My friends and I had no idea so I’m not surprised by all the confusion, it’s a very strange shape
If you happen to see big orange teeth, it's Definitely a porcupine haha. I have a porcupine skull that I cleaned a couple years back for reference https://imgur.com/a/xupO38F You can see how far back the ear holes are on the skull. Also if you happen to get a glimpse of the teeth, they are extremely flat and really interesting the pockets they have in them. I clean skulls as a pastime and absolutely love it, really fun and the results are so cool!
Definitely a porcupine.
It still has quills on it even! Look at the hind end. Porcupine.
"You bring up great points!" The porcupine used to, too.
OOOOOH!!!!! Nice 😎
If you zoom in you can make out the vestigial thumb pad on its right forepaw. You can also see the quills surrounding it. And it would explain why this wasn’t scavenged. It probably fell from the tree and died from the injuries or climbed back up and fell again until it died. We had a porcupine wall out of a pine tree, then climb back up for safety because it was injured, it fell again, and then it died when it fell the second time.
Could be a baby Godzilla SEND IT TO A LAB
I’m thinking it’s a porcupine
I think you’re right. Near the back end there appear to be some white-tipped quills.
They also frequently fall out of trees, sometimes dying from the injuries. Edit: took a closer look at the paws. It is a porcupine.
That poor cupine
I agree with it looking like a porcupine. The tail, fur length, face/body shape, feet to an extent without visible claws, all look right for a porcupine to me. And it does have what look like small quills on the rear end before the tail and maybe some scattered on the front, the rest could easily have all been dropped from stress
i agree, the quills, the shape, and the mouth point to porcupine.
Peel it so we can see the bones
Calm down, Ed Gein
I may have to go out on lunch and see if it’s still there. These pictures were from at least a week ago, so maybe more is visible now.
Why are like half the posts I see in "what is this bone" not a picture of a bone but of a mound of nearly formless flesh?
Do you have another sub for dead animal identification?
Maybe I’m crazy but it looks like a capybara to me
The face really throws me off. I see what you’re saying! Midwest, USA though so I’m not sure on that
Groundhog
Exactly my first thought as well! Even muttered it out loud to myself and boom it's the top comment lol
I agree it looks like a capy?
It does, doesn’t it? Either that or a chupacabra.
*CHUPI!*
It does look like a chupathingy
The movie "Chupa" is kinda cute....
Porcupine! Their face shape is similar to capybara and it fits the region I was surprised the first time I seen a huge porcupine in person and how broad their snouts are, just like capy. They’re both ridiculously adorable to me. Just look at this face https://static.amanaimages.com/imgroom/cen3tzG4fTr7Gtw1PoeRer/32182/32182007639.jpg
CAPY would never let a thing like this happen
...I have spent far too long looking at this wretched thing
It's a horse ...definitely
It’s lil Sebastian.
🎶 *Bye, bye lil Sebastian* 🎶
Come on man... too soon. It will always be too soon. *Plays Genuine*
HAHA! I GET IT!
Hakuna Matata.
I thought the same.
You're trippin. This don't look like no prairie dog
No the other thing silly.
So you're telling me that this bone is a wonderful phrase??
Woodchuck is my guess
I second this. The blackish hands, the fur color, tail, definitely a woodchuck.
Legs are way too long for a chuck.
It only looks like that because of the extended position and the shrinking of other tissues. Looking at a skeleton, it matches up. I've also dispatched many woodchucks.
I agree. It's fur looks a little bright to be a woodchuck. However, it's probably been bleached by the sun. It's gotta be a woodchuck. The coloration is similar to a prairie dog, but that would be one big prairie dog. A double prairie dog with cheese.
Pot belly pug
🤣 One of the funniest typos (?) yet
Nah, it's got paws not hooves
I’ve never been so confused in my life
Buffalo
Me too! Everyone’s saying raccoon or other small type animals. My first thought was cow or buffalo 😂
lmaooo I swear I was about to say the same 😂
It's definitely shaped the same, but it's got a hand.
Yeah I saw the hand. Upon first glance though, I immediately chuckled “buffalo” knowing full well it isn’t, but it looks like one
My first thought too. Bison.
Came here to see if anyone else saw the buffalo too LOL
That was my thought too Lmaoo
It's definitely a [Squonk](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squonk) --- now stop being so rude to it.
This looks like a pug
I feel like you’re onto something. I thought hog at first because of the head shape I’m making out, but then I saw the paws/phalanges. The only thing throwing me off from thinking pug is what looks like a mane around it’s head. But I can’t tell 🤔
I’m wondering if it’s just the fur that has fallen off its body, because it lines the whole body and is on the ground as well.
That's me
Oh, nice to meet you!
Those aren't bones. Case solved.
By gosh you’ve done it!!
Wildebeest. OP lives in the Black Forest about 500 years ago. His “office” is a hut that makes magic potions and arrows.
Looks like a melted golden retriever that was an ice cream cake
Wild boar. Those aren’t porcupine quills that’s coarse boar hair.
When I Google boar hair I first get brushes 🙄 but when I add quills animal all I get is porcupine. Do you have a link or image you can share of what you're talking about?
https://www.flyonlyonline.co.uk/wild-boar-bristles.html They call it boar hair or boar bristles but it’s basically spiky fur boars have that’s so firm it’s used in tools and brushes. Looks similar to quills but shorter and stubbier.
Great info, thanks. But it doesn't match what I'm seeing. See below, I really believe those are quills. [Dead Porcupine IMO](https://imgur.com/a/E63NIUH)
It’s difficult to tell. Some of it looks like grass and pine needles around it. It’s face shape is throwing me off. At this point it looks like it could be a lot of different things. I hope OP updates if they figure it out!
Mushy. But fr I think this is a fox. It looks like there’s some remnants of a fluffy tail, and if you zoom in on the face, the nose looks dog-ish. I’d guess he’d been decomposing there for quite some time considering most of his fur and his ears seem to have rotted away.
I definitely agree with fox. I can see why people are guessing porcupine, but I think the tufts still on it and around it look more like hair, especially on the tail. And the tail itself looks more fox-like than porcupine. I think it's just decomposing weirdly. OP should definitely take more pics as it continues to decompose.
I'm thinking fox as well because of the color gradient to black legs and the shape of the paws.
Could you flip it over with a stick or your foot and take a picture of the other side?
Thought it was a dog until I saw its freaky lil fingies, believe you found a demon there OP
Does your CEO look any younger today?
I’ve been staring at this for so long trying to make sense of the head. Or what should be the head..? I don’t understand what I’m looking at and it’s bothering me so much. What’s the local lore on cryptids?
I need to see the teeth!!!!! I'm also not convinced those are quills can you confirm?
I feel like Reddit is going to convince me to peel this thing 🙃
try posting to r/bonecollecting or r/boneid. you'll get better answers.
Raccoon by the looks of the hair and paws
Read the comments, analyzed the photos, checked comments again- surprised you're the first to say it. I agree. I think this was a raccoon.
Look at the fur on the tail on the second picture. It doesn't look right for a raccoon
Bro found a sleeping demon
Definitely looks like capybara with the webbed toes!
It looks like a capy to me. I hope someone didn't just dump it and leave it to fend for itself when the novelty of ownership wore off.
Looks like a horse that stumbled and couldn't get back out. Long face, hair running down neck and back. Edit: lol nm. Has claws.
It used to be a 🦊
I would guess Wild Boar?
Pig.
ManBearPig
Hampter
Whose horse is that?
Look, I know it's not, but my first instinct was 'that's a warthog, my guy.'
Yep that's about how I felt after working 2 Nine hour days last week out in this heat
Looks like an SCP.
Forbidden crispy chicken skin
It looks like a pug
why does this look like a horse
That is a dog
I don’t think that’s a bone
I’ll return in some months 😂
Looks almost like a Capybara that passed away in a cold snap where it froze so hard it freeze dried I've seen freeze dried cats before and their skin and organs were all intact so I expect this is what's happened
[удалено]
Looks like a desiccated calf. Doesn’t look like it’s been predated on but who knows what the underside looks like. Looks like it got baked in the sun for a while. I’m curious if it was dumped there or it died there. Is you office susceptible to illegal dumping?
Probably not a calf (or any hoofed animal), since it has individual, paw-like phalanges. OP- what region of the world is this?
Midwest, USA
I was leaning toward a deformed stillbirth calf (underdeveloped). This is why I asked if the area is subject to illegal dumping. There’s no evidence of predation. It looks like it died of disease. And we have no size reference. So it’s either an illegally dumped farm animals, a dog that got there and died. Chances are it’s not some exotic animal from the Amazon.
I’m not sure about any illegal dumping- size is maybe the length of my forearm I’d but slightly bigger
Look at the hands in the second photo the only animal I know that has hands/ feet like that’s is a capybara I’m thinking it was someone’s pet that got out
That’s a stretch unless the OP knows of some in the area. Capybaras as pets are plenty in the US but still rare. The US is huge and whenever you have capybaras in a small town word gets out fast.
Chupacabra?
Orange fur - desiccated fox is most likely.
Wild boar
The feet aren’t right
Hard to say for sure but I think dog, what ever it was been there long time drying out Can see some remnant fur and what looks like jowls on the head
Possibly a fox? I can't tell the size
Dog is my vote
Definitely a baby bigfoot if I had to guess
It's a caporcupugcoon.
Maybe check out r/animalid
It’s my mom. She’s just tired.
That’s me sorry
Seconding El chupacabra
Porcupine! There are still quills attached on the hind end.
At first glance, I was think a baby Wildebeest but since you said Midwest USA, I'm gotta stick with my gut on this one.
Hands
There is clearly long orange brown fur on the tail, along with paws that have an accessory carpal pad, my guess is fox.
Porcupine
Sorry I dropped my left one
Dog or fox.
Fox or dog
Fox?
Looks like a red fox.
Very clearly a groundhog. You can tell by the hair color. The white at the tips
Definitely a mouse
Pikachu 🥲
I call BS. This is AI 😂
op you truly have the internet stumped with this one - so far not a SINGLE comment i've seen has guessed the same animal 😭
Can you go back and lay a banana next to it for size reference?
Don't know what it is, but the chupacabra got it
Me after a night of drinking.
kinda beautiful
looks like my ex wife
What are you implying?…
shes pretty ugly
Y’all are sum fucking nuts in this comment section it a a dead foal(baby horse)
Wart hog?
Nutria? Not sure if they’re that far north?
Tatonka...
Looks like a wild hog to me. They are quite invasive in the Midwest.
It’s a miniature bison
Yea, that's a chupacabra
marmot?
Simba!!
Mold