ANCHORAGE — University researchers in Alaska will soon have access to the only complete humpback whale skeleton in the state.
Anchorage television station KTVA reports researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks on Wednesday collected the remaining bones of a dead humpback that washed ashore last July at Kincaid Park in Anchorage.
Volunteers earlier made 45 trips up a 200-foot bluff with lighter bones, but a helicopter was used this week to ferry out the heavier bones.
Aren Gunderson is the mammal curator at the university’s Museum of the North. Gunderson says the skeleton is complete, except for one small bone located near the throat that they couldn’t find.
Don’t expect to see the skeleton on display anytime soon, though. To thoroughly clean the bones, they will be buried in sand for a year to help the rot remove flesh and oil.
