If you have ever successfully hunted anything, especially if it’s your first time or a memorable hunt for some reason, you’ve probably wanted to preserve the animal in some way, which often involves cleaning the bones.
There are two main ways to preserve an animal: either through taxidermy using the hide or by skeletal articulation that requires a clean set of bones.
To clean bones, there are several methods depending on the state the bones are in. Here are four ways to season animal bones and remove its flesh.
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Simmering
Simmering, but not boiling, bones in hot water is one of the most popular methods for cleaning bones of flesh. It’s relatively efficient at about 12 to 16 hours and it does not require much effort. You may want to add some powdered laundry detergent to speed up the process even more.
Setting out
As strange as it sounds, simply letting the flesh sit out in the hot sun in the open air is one of the best ways to clean bones of flesh. Nature does its work best when it has room to function in the open air. Flies that lay eggs and hatch maggots are the best friends of those who want to clean bones, and that only happens above ground.
Burying method
It stands to reason, since people have been burying dead bodies for ions that burying flesh underground is a perfectly good method for cleaning bones that might want to preserve. This is true, but you might want to leave the body out for a few days in the open air so that maggots have a chance to hatch before putting it underground. The trick, too, for this method is knowing when to dig it up. Like anything else, the best things happen for those who wait.
Dermistid beetles
One of the coolest ways to go about seasoning animal bones and removing the flesh is by using dermestid beetles. These are special insects that specialize in consuming raw flesh. If you are so lucky to locate a supplier of these unique insects, and you have a penchant for cleaning animal bones, then by all means give this a shot. Try filming the results and playing back in a time-lapse. The results will be shocking.
