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Collecting and Cleaning Animal Bones

This is a tutorial for beginners on how to procure and clean animal bones based upon my own experiences doing so.

Collecting

Finding your first bone out in the wild is difficult, but once you do it, it becomes much easier thereafter. You will become familair with areas that have them. Creeks, greenbelts, small woodland areas, underneath bridges. Look closely in the foliage for small grey or yellowish bones. They may look like twigs, but you will be able to distinguish them by the bulbous joints on each end and the firmness. If you find one bone, it is very likely there is more nearby. Dig around, pick up rocks, search for other parts of the skeleton.

Transporting

Put the bones in a plastic baggie or a plastic container, and preferably use gloves if you have them, but if this is a spontaneous adventure, try to use hand sanitizer after. Completely dry bones can be safely stored for a long time. Fresh bones should be cleaned as immeditaly as possible and not come into contact with anything you plan to keep.

Cleaning

While cleaning, use gloves if you can. Clean the bones in a sink that you can sanitize afterwards.

Step 1 (dry bones only): Wash off in a sink with soap and warm water until most dirt and gunk is gone. Clean out crevices with a q-tip.

Step 2:
Fill a plastic container (of appropraite size for the bones) with hydrogen peroxide. Soak the bones, with a lid on the container, for 24 hours. Very large or dirty bones may need to soak for multiple days. Very small bones, such as the fragile bones of bird, sometimes can only be soaked for a couple hours less they become mushy and unusable. Soak them until they have whitened.

Step 3:
Clean out crevices again to completely get rid of all dirt. You may need to soak in hydrogen peroxide a second time if there is still a lot of dirt. Try to loosen it up with warm water.

Step 4:
Dry off with paper towel. Spray with nicely scented hand sanitizer for extra sanitization and just adding a pleasant smell.

Step 5:
Clean all containers thoroughly and dispose of any paper towels, dirty plastic bags, or vinyl gloves. Scrub down and sanitize any surfaces involved in the process. Wash you arms up to the elbow. I reuse my plastic transportation and soaking containers and clearly label them with sharpie as such:
!!WARNING!! for keeping animal bones!! do not use for anything else!!

usage

Most commonly, people use bones for display, crafts, and ritual purposes. I keep bones on my bookshelf, like my raccoon skull, muskrat jaw, and opossum spine. I have also used bones for necklaces, such as a small jar of bird bones, a rosary of bone beads, or (I did not make myself) snake vertabrae stud earrings. Bones are incredibly stylish.

Remember that the reason for doing this is to bring purpose to a stagnant biological material out of respect for the animal, the Earth, and what it can provide us. Be creative, be an artist. Reflect on the animal's life. Reflect on how you want to be used by the Earth after you die. Learn about the marvelous and efficient structure that is the skeleton. To collect bones is to understand the importance of life and death.