Deformed Lion Skull

[TAM]

Back in October I was fortunate to go on my second mountain lion hunt with Randy Epperson. As some of you may recall we were able to harvest a real nice size tom with some rather unusual skull deformations. I'm still not quite sure what caused this, but in my unprofessional opinion it's more of a birth defect versus some kind of healed up injury. Perhaps someone on the site has seen this sort of thing before and can explain it?

 

Thanks again to Randy and his dogs for another great time!

 

 

 

 

 

In these next few pic's I've photographed the deformed skull next to a normal mountain lion skull that I killed with Randy Epperson a few years ago for comparison. Notice the bananna shape of the head, the pointy bone growths on the back of the skull, the curved jaw bone, and that only one tooth ever grew in the lower left jaw. I think Mother Nature goofed up on this one!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For what it's worth I used a place called Western Skulls out of Peoria to have beetles clean and whiten my skull. This is the first time that I've used this company or this type of service. To say the least I'm very happy with the quick turn around on the finished product and the quality of the results! In the pictures you can even see that the normal skull is a little yellow and dingy compared to the perfectly white deformed skull cleaned by beetles. I'm sure I'll be using them again in the future.

 

 

[Coues Sniper]

That's one of the coolest things I've seen. A one of a kind trophy for sure. Thanks for sharing that

[CouesWhitetail]

Cool! thanks for the pics! Western Skulls seems to be a good company. They have donated to the AZ Deer Association banquets in the past and do excellent work.

 

Amanda

 

[joeybari]

Ok in my professional opinion in the matter it’s a hybrid of the chupacabra and mnt lion

 

 

Nice lion a rare find nice work

 

[FlyingW]

Pretty healthy looking cat for having a twisted punkin like that !!!

[Non-Typical Solutions]

Pretty healthy looking cat for having a twisted punkin like that !!!

Exactly my thoughts......reminded me of when my 12 year old over Christmas break he said , "Dad, what does it mean if somebody says you aint clickin on all cylinders".......I will have to show him the pics to help him understand...........

[hunter4life]

The way the whole skull is deformed like that I would also think it is some kind of birth defect rather than an injury. An injury that extensive would likely have resulted in a dead kitty.

 

A few years ago my brother, a friend and I caught a lion in Colorado that had a hole right through his skull that looked to be from a tooth of another lion. That cat had been fighting and had abscesses on his front legs, shoulders, and head. It is amazing that the cat didn't end up dying from meningitis from the injury he had.

[AZantlerhead]

That's one of the coolest things I've seen. A one of a kind trophy for sure. Thanks for sharing that

 

+1!!!

[Browning'sCustomMeat]

That is pretty neat. But my professional opinion is that he fell out of a tree and landed on his melon when he was a kitty.

[thegunsmith2506]

Thats pretty cool. Thanks for posting pics!

[king4wd]

Looks like sloth from the goonies. Cool for sure.

[bonecollector]

sweet pics thatnks for sharing.

[Chef]

That's pretty cool.

Could you feel the "spike" on the crown through the fur on its head?

[TAM]

That's pretty cool.

Could you feel the "spike" on the crown through the fur on its head?

 

No, we couldn't feel the spike through his fur, but then again at that point we didn't know to feel for it. We really didn't notice anything until Mark Plunkett started to skin out the face when he noticed things were a little lop sided.

[el diablo]

I'd say he's inbred. Probably from Apache Junction or Buckeye would be my guess. Seriously though that's pretty cool looking.