During the 1980s, loggers working for the Georgia Kraft Corporation were cutting down a chestnut oak tree in southern Georgia when they found a most unusual sight.
The Heartbreaking Story of a Hound
After cutting off the top of the tree, the loggers loaded it onto a truck for transport. A group members happened to peer down the hollow trunk, and inside the log, he found the remains of a dog looking back at him. The animal was perfectly mummified, with its teeth still bared in a fight for survival.
Upon close inspection, experts who studied the body concluded that the brown and white animal was most likely a hunting dog from the 1960s. While chasing something like a squirrel, the dog passes through a hole in the root and up the center about 28 feet (8.5 meters) high.
The higher the dog got, the narrower the tree became. The canine never caught his prey, and no one pulled him out. From the position of its paws, it was believed that the dog continued to climb until it effectively wedged itself in. Since it was unable to escape or turn around, the dog remained in the accidental trap and died.
It took 20 years before the dog was discovered by the loggers who donated him to Southern Forest World. The dog was later named "Stuckie," and he has been the museum's star attraction ever since.
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Closing the Coffin
How did Stuckie's body stay preserved without using Egyptian mummifying techniques? Biological anthropologist Kristina Killgrove solved the mystery at the University of West Florida. Based on her experience studying decay in humans, she explained how Stuckie got dry-preserved in a tree.
In living creatures, microbes in the body are left under control by biological processes. When a human or an animal dies, these creatures are left unchecked. As a result, they begin to consume the body, with the gut microbes starting the princess of putrefaction.
These microorganisms grow, reproduce, and start taking over the body as the body bloats and decays. Bacteria, fungi, insects, and other animals begin to come and eat the remains.
This natural process did not happen when Stuckie got trapped in the tree that eventually became his coffin. Chestnut oaks contain tannin, a substance used to tan animal pelts and prevent decay. As a natural desiccant, tannin absorbs moisture and dries out its surroundings. Since the environment has little moisture, microbial activity was stopped. Consequently, no microbial activity means no decay.
Bertha Dixon, director of the Southern Forest World Museum, explains that the position and shape of the tree also helped keep Stuckie as he was. The orientation of the tree allowed the air to blow upward, like having a chimney effect. The air going up and out of the tree would make it hard for animals to sense the smell of the dead body. This means that any slow flesh eater would never know that the dog was in the tree.
Other animals have also become accidentally preserved through natural desiccants, such as peat, dry sand, hay, or salt. Such was the case of a partially-preserved corpse found by an electrician in a small city in Uttarakhand, India. The little creature was mistaken for a dinosaur but was most likely a yellow-throated marten.
In 17th- and 18th-century England, some builders put a cat in the walls of a house to ward off witches. The plaster wall would preserve the cat, preventing it from smelling. Whether animals or humans, the bodies we leave behind can remain indefinitely if adequately preserved.
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