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best container and tips for transporting a mostly-decayed turtle shell?

i need to get it home before i can clean it, which means a 2-3 hour drive in the car. i don’t wanna make anyone uncomfortable so how do i best do this? mainly what sort of container would be best to transport it safely and in the least smelly way possible?

The only dead turtles I've experienced were incredibly smelly, so personally these would be my recommendations:

Attaching it to the outside of the vehicle. This is BY FAR my number one recommendation. If you have a roof rack, a shelf-type cargo rack, a truck bed, or any other way to attach it to the vehicle on the outside definitely do that. I drive an SUV myself and have just used bungee cords to strap animal parts to my roof with great success, many times driving for hours without issue. I would recommend covering/wrapping the shell up with a small tarp or using other types of containment (such as a bin or a sturdy bag) as a precaution. This can help with tying down, and hides what you're transporting if you don't want to broadcast what you're doing. Just make sure it's secured very well (check on it regularly for the first few miles, or if there's any big shifts like sudden stops or hairpin turns), you're careful about where you park and what/who you park next to, for the employees' sake avoid any drive-thru places, be mindful of what other drivers can see, and maybe don't attract any unwanted attention from cops who might have to ask awkward questions.

If putting the shell on the outside of your vehicle isn't an option you could use a very tight closing bin with something else inside that smells pleasant. This could be something like wood chips (which you can bury the shell in!) or scented drawer sachets. Just make sure it's something you like the smell of. When it comes to plastic storage bins I prefer ones that have a rubber or soft lining around the rim for holding in bad smells. Tupperware-type containers also work great if you have/can find any that are big enough for the turtle shell. Another surprisingly good option is a plastic ice chest. I once accidentally macerated two raccoons in one for two years and honestly the smell was very minimal while the lid was closed. If you use a plastic ice chest tape it shut, just in case. I can speak from experience that if it tips over and opens up you'll wish you taped it.

To go hand-in-hand with the last suggestion, use multiple forms of containment, preferably with something good smelling to go with it. For example, put the turtle shell in a couple of sealed plastic baggies, then in a container, or a container inside a container. You can also cover everything with a blanket (preferably thick) or a sheet or towels. Just don't use anything you're really attached to, unless you really love cleaning bad smells out of things.

Bring air fresheners with you, if you like those. This can be plug-ins or sprays. If you're sensitive to those like I am you could try surrounding the shell with baking soda.

Understand how air flow works in your vehicle, and how you can use the vehicle's features to off-set it. Cracking the windows on opposite sides can help pull in fresh air (but sometimes it can also cause the air to circulate in your car and make the smell worse), running the air in your vehicle pulling from outside, or stopping to air things out by opening and closing the doors several times ("fanning" the doors) can be helpful when traveling with something smelly. If you don't know the best ways to vent out your vehicle you can practice with something pleasant smelling before you go grab the turtle.

They also make portable mini air purifiers. I've never personally used one and can't attest to how well they work, but I've seen people online say it has worked for them with smelly car situations.

Whatever you end up going with, I wish you the best of luck! As an aside, make sure you bring along other supplies as well such as gloves (double-glove for a turtle, they STINK!), hand sanitizer, sanitary wipes and/or soap/water, napkins and/or towels, any other basic cleaning supplies you'd use in your vehicle just in case, and a backup plan in case things go wrong. If you use any form of containment inside your vehicle I strongly suggest putting a towel, blanket, or sheets under it that you're not attached to just in case. When it comes to stinky situation it's better to do too much than not enough.

If anyone else has recommendations please bring them up in comments or reblogs!

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I love this idea for pieces that are farther off from guests too, to help them get an idea of how big it is!

so I maybe teared up a little

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✦ fluorescence

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(This bird died of natural causes, permission to share by owner)

It was such an honor to work on this beautiful bird. Her owners and I decided to have her sleeping perched atop a petrified wood slab that they provided me. The slab arrived broken but was mended and I was asked to paint the cracks with gold foil, mimicking the Japanese tradition of kintsugi.

In a way I think that’s quite fitting for this mount. Something once broken, made whole again.

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To be honest, little guy doesn't look too rent asunder! It looks like fur has been ripped out to me, so I wonder if some of the rats/squirrels have been trying to snatch it for nesting material? That's my best guess!

I've found a new friend under mysterious circumstances! Warning for a dead skunk under the cut!

Tonight I went into our storage barn and it reeked of death and skunk, and after some investigating I found this little one. This barn has been taken over by rats and squirrels but not much else gets in here, certainly no predators that I've seen. I'm not surprised this little fella got in here but what could have killed and torn him apart?! The only thing I can think of is possibly a stray cat... but a territorial squrriel wouldn't surprise me either!

I'm super excited about this little one, I'm hoping his skeleton is still in good condition (not crunched by a dog like most of my other backyard finds) so I can give him a new life with articulation. He's joined my squrriel in the manure pile so my experiment now has two subjects, quite similar in size too. I'm gonna need more poop!

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Just a quick reminder...

The Animal Photo Reference Repository is a totally free-to-use and AI-free resource for all your animal art needs! However, it does cost money and time to run.

Please consider donating to support the repository if you're able! Funding goes towards the site and domain costs, gear rental, and travel to locations with new species.

If you can't afford to donate right now - which is real - please feel free to continue enjoying the references. They're here for everyone. If you'd like to help out, you can always tell people about the site or share the crowdfunding links!

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This is an enormous mastiff paw. And he was only about a year old! Poor guy was euthanized due to complications from wobbler syndrome. I'm cleaning the bones from his other front paw to articulate for a comparative anatomy display.

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The great auk also had its own diorama, and they also had another mount and a skull on display!

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(Click to make it legible, hopefully)

I found this MBTA infographic I made for an environmental biology class ages ago, so I figured I may as well share it, before I forgot about it again.

Even unknowing violations can net you up to a $15,000 fine. Put the damn bird bits back.

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Shoutout to bird dioramas with chicks, big fan of seeing the elegant adult birds right next to their scruffy yelling babies

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Week 1 check in on the manure squrriel! There's some good progress already, the feet are cleaned down to bone and the rest is decaying nicely. Comparison picture below, warning if you're squeamish about dead critters/decay!

Top picture is exactly one week ago and bottom is today. So far I'm very pleased with this cleaning method, I'm excited for next week's check in!

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Today I went to the science museum. It was basically empty. You might think of course it was, it's a natural history museum, shouldn't you be doing things specific to Florence? Buddy this museum has had the same badly-taxidermied hippo for three hundred years, and for a hundred years before that a different museum had it. Multiple European scholars with varying levels of hippo expertise have tried to improve it over the centuries. You can't see stuff like that just anywhere. The description mostly just talks about everything that's wrong with the hippo, and how the current curators have worked to preserve the different layers of alterations and attempted fixes, while also stabilizing the specimen:

Its unnatural position and unappealing details make us suppose that its taxidermists have never seen it live. For example, although it is a digitigrade animal, the position of its feet was prepared like that of a plantigrade. [...] Two different approaches thus coexisted for over two centuries: a seventeenth-century one "cabinet of curiosities" like and a late eighteenth century one, with a naturalistic aim. [...] Therefore, a restoration, completed in 2012, was necessary which highlighted the two different approaches of preparation, allowing to enhance its original appearance, but also preserving the beautiful wax modeling reconstruction of the details of the head.

Here we have, in part, a history of "exotic" European zoological inquiry in microcosm. Everybody's all oh let's go see the important church, or the other important church, even though the line is an hour long, and no one wants to look at the fucked up hippo with me.

Also, I want to be clear: this was a great museum and I think more people should go and would have a great time there even without knowing or caring much about the history of science (or even being as easily amused by taxidermy as I am). Their current exhibit juxtaposes actual historical taxidermy with modern art of fantastical medieval-esque imagined creatures. And their collection of wax anatomical models is fascinating (and quite famous). They have a lovely mineral collection, too.

Also if you like me are easily lost, and you get confused about how to leave, you can just follow the wheelchair-accessible path because it's the only one you can find that leads to the exit! And then you get to see a surprise giraffe in a corner by the elevator, away from all of the other taxidermy. Why not!

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Rotten

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The tiniest bunnies! The cubby is maybe 2.5 inches wide. Above them are domestic quail skulls for scale.

The rabbit skulls are all domestic babies. The smallest one (on top) is a stillborn Polish bunny.

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One week left, and Isnad still hasn't raised enough for rent.

The initiative will be forced to stop its activities if it does not raise the sum. This is heartbreaking.

Please visit @isnadfoundation and their website to read the testimonies of the beneficiaries and how the initiative has enabled them to continue pursuing their degrees remotely amidst the genocide. Isnad does a lot of good and it would be awful to see it come to an end.

$580/$3500. 7 days remain.

Fundraiser || PayPal || Vetting

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My presentation on Bone-Hunting for Jentel Presents in Sheridan, Wyoming.