Roadkill Skeletons® was formed to provide structure to something that originated as a hobby. While the collecting of bones and skeletons may not be a novel hobby, RKS focuses specifically on the collection of wild animals struck by vehicles on the roads of South Africa.
The emphasis is on road kills, but some of the skeletons may also originate from animal corpses donated by zoo’s and animal parks. In collecting skeletons, the following principles are adhered to:
No animals are killed for the sole purpose of extracting skeletons: Animals either died in road kills or natural causes. Exceptions are cases where animals were hunted for meat, e.g. Springbuck.
Note that none of the animals in our skeleton collection was killed for its skeleton
Clones of skulls can be produced on request. The main objectives of RKS are the sharing of knowledge regarding cleaning and rebuilding of skeletons as well as the recording of elementary data on road kills. The latter could hopefully assist authorities and nature conservationists in providing data on wild animals endemic to specific regions of Southern Africa.
THE CALL It was during the spring of 2013 when I received an early morning call from my dentist. Since it was a Saturday, I realised that this was not the usual courtesy call reminding me of my annual check-up. It should be mentioned that my dentist is also not your usual specimen of dentists. Rough around the edges is an understatement to say the least. Email: donnie@roadkillskeletons.co.za | Tel: +27(0)83 632 5717 | Location: Butterfly World, Western Cape, South Africa
