![]() ![]() The animals, donated, come from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, zookeepers, farm owners, gardeners. Blood splotches appear like dabs of raspberry jam on wax paper. And inside is not especially fun: The temperature is many degrees below zero, the smell is oppressively musty, and on shelves, on the floor, piled in every corner, there are garbage bags full of dead animals, every one waiting to meet the beetles. Goldman said it is the scariest room, because sometimes she worries she will be locked inside. The second-scariest room is down the hall from Goldman's office, and it's not a room so much as a walk-in freezer. The skull of a calf born with two faces stared up from a box.ĭespite what you might be thinking, this is not the second-scariest room in the Field Museum. A pair of hairy, dead otters were curled in a corner. "Wednesday is skinning day at the museum," Goldman explained, entering the office and nodding to a few interns who sat quietly skinning squirrels and rodents at an autopsy table in the middle of the room. This is not because her job is nauseating and disturbing, but it is almost Halloween, so it's nice to imagine the worst. Goldman left an elevator and headed for her office, which is two stories beneath the lobby of the museum. Because, as any flesh-eating beetle would remind you: Gotta stay hydrated. "Oh! We have rib already!" Her voice became tender: "Good job! You guys are doing great!" She grabbed a spray bottle and, to reward the bugs' efficiency, misted their cage. "In a couple of hours, we should see some rib," Goldman said, reaching into the cage and shaking a few hundred beetles off the body of No Data, now riddled with holes. Over the hiss of air ducts, the room began filling with a horrifying soundtrack. And then, sometimes, they will mount each other and have sex on top of the dead mammal."Īfter 20 minutes of sweaty beetle bacchanal the knot grew less frantic. "If you watch closely," Goldman pointed out, "beetles will socialize on the body and learn to navigate its parameters. His toes danced as the beetles worked into every crevice. ![]() Within 10 minutes, No Data was an undulating dark mound of bugs and beetle larva. ![]() After a few seconds, beetles were massing on the chipmunk's tail. ![]()
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