The bone collector

By Silas Polkinghorne

Archeology professor Ernie Walker with an armadillo specimin from the University’s zooarcheological collection. Photo by Silas Polkinghorne

Ernie Walker doesn’t search for animals to add to his collection – he waits for the animals to come to him.

Walker supervises the Department of Archaeology’s zooarchaeological collection. It is used to identify bone fragments found in excavations, and with almost 600 specimens, it is among the three largest collections of its kind in Canada, he says.

Building that collection hasn’t been easy. Walker, a professor of Archaeology, began gathering specimens in 1982, but didn’t begin collecting in earnest until 1991. He makes clear that no animals have been killed for the collection and that he never pays for specimens – ensuring there is no bounty on a particular animal.

“You take a specimen when you can get one,” said Walker. “That’s why it’s taken so long.”

In the waiting game, Walker takes animals any way he can get them. Specimens come from conservation officers, the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, trappers, and wildlife biologists as well as from students themselves.

“I come in here and sometimes there’s just a box of bones outside my door,” said Walker in an interview recently. “Most teachers get an apple from their students. I get a dead animal or a roadkill.”

Most of the animals are from the local geographic area – northern Canada and the northern Plains – but as the collection grows, it stretches further and further afield. “The idea is to be a comprehensive as possible.”

When Walker tours a visitor through the collection, located in the basement of the Archaeology building, he is brisk and enthusiastic, pointing out specimens of foxes, weasels, reptiles, rodents, and amphibians that have been meticulously labeled, catalogued, and organized.

“Forget about the preparation time – (think of) the management time for a collection like this,” he said, “because you can’t just have the bones lying around. It’ll get it all mixed up.”

There are owls, turkeys, prairie chickens, hawks, eagles, falcons, geese, and pelicans. There is also the big stuff — caribou, musk ox, and plenty of bison, as well as pronghorns, deer, moose, grizzlies, and black bears. The polar bears were sent by railway from Churchill, Manitoba.

“Now, polar bears eat a lot of fish and sea animals, so they are extremely oily and there’s a tremendous odour to that. The railroad was not real happy with me that these polar bears were shipped down here. And my students weren’t very happy either.”

Specimens collected by Walker have found their way abroad, as well. He once got a letter from the Mary Leaky, the now-deceased wife of Lewis Leaky and a premiere archaeologist in her own right. Walker’s collection included several wolverines he had received from game officers in Alaska, and Leaky asked for one for her collection of bone-crushing mammals.

He sent off the bones, and “a number of months later a box came smelling of mothballs and naphtha – just reeked. And inside that box was a spotted hyena that (Mary Leaky) sent back to me.” The hyena is now part of the collection.

Walker opens a freezer and points to animals inside. “A grad student brought me a bunch of bats just a week ago. But there is my beautiful macaw,” he said, proudly holding up the colourful bird that came in from the American Southwest.

“There’s a wolf in here, there’s a lion in here. Does this sound a little ghoulish?” he asked. “It’s not like I’m hovering around, waiting for the demise of the animal.” But he admits this is a grizzly business – no doubt about it.

“I think it’s something you get used to,” said Walker, who is also a special constable with the RCMP and does human forensics. “It wouldn’t be for everybody.”

Walker uses the collection when he does work on illegal poaching or animal materials seized at airports. Biologists, veterinarians, conservation officers, and officials with the Canadian Wildlife Service use the specimen collection, too, as do other archaeologists.

The skeletons are prepared under Walker’s supervision by senior Archaeology undergrads as a course requirement, although he won’t force students who would rather not take part. The animals are boiled or simmered to remove soft tissue, and some must be degreased. Some bones are then coated with polyvinyl acetate to preserve them.

“I think the students over the years have taken a real pride is this collection – the fact that they prepared it for the next group of students … So as it’s grown, it’s kind of a rite of passage in this department.”

Walker stressed that although archaeology is concerned with human behaviour, it is also a natural science. “So people don’t realize that we need collections just the way Geology or Biology would. We need those kinds of research collections as well, or you really can’t do your business.”

Walker says he will continue to build the collection, and hopes to acquire more animals from other parts of Canada, like aquatic mammals from the west coast. But he’s already proud of the way the collection has grown. “Grad students who come from other places will certainly tell you, ‘Man, the collection at this university is really amazing, and nobody knows about it’.”