Crop and enlarge from the above photo.
Lowest arrow:
Notice how the hair shaft has been softened to the point that it pulled out like a thread of taffy. The shaft actually runs off the bottom right of the photograph.
The taxidermist that mounted the antelope had hair slippage at the drying-down point of the skin after the cape had been mounted. The acid solution (there has been a fairly recent Supreme Court ruling on the word pickle) and tanning agent he used is a fairly common combination. And so are the results pictured.
Notice at the arrow heads how the shaft has been dissolved. Note the lack of follicles.
This is but ONE form of slip.
Hair slippage of this nature, where the hair shaft gets dissolved, or burned in two at the skin surface, is not at all uncommon in a fresh dead animal either. The "fastest" I have witnessed personally has taken place 5 hours after the death of the animal.
It takes a process of elimination to identify a potential catalyst, or catalysts, and this part gets real tricky, not to mention complex.
CHEMICALLY INDUCED PRONGHORN ANTELOPE HAIR SLIP
by Glen Conley
Sponsored by
