In the 1980s, a group of loggers from The Georgia Kraft Corp. cut down a chestnut oak somewhere in a forest in the state of Georgia, United States of America. However, when they sawed off the trunk, they made a surprising discovery, they found the mummified corpse of a dog entombed inside.
After cutting off the top of the tree, and loading it onto a truck for transport, a member of the team happened to peer down the hollow trunk. Inside, he found the perfectly mummified remains of a dog, looking back at him, its teeth still bared in a fight for survival.
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| The story of Stuckie in a 1985 article published in the Atlantic Constitution newspaper (Image Credit: Snopes) |
The hunting dog, was discovered in a hollow stretch 28ft up by loggers. The loggers, who were working on cutting the tree into pieces almost turned it into mulch.
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| The root of the chestnut oak tree (Image Credit: Newsweek) |
The mummified dog got his name after a 2002 naming contest, and the name "Stuckie" was chosen.
It is believed that Stuckie met his unfortunate fate sometime in the 1960s. The dog perished there and remained entombed inside the tree for about 20 years, until it was cut down by loggers from the Georgia Kraft Corp.
According to the experts who studied the carcass concluded that the dog was most likely a hunting dog who had chased something such as a squirrel or a raccoon through a hole in the roots, and up the center of the hollow tree where it became stuck and then died of starvation.
But how did this dog's body stay preserved for so long when there was no Egyptian mummifying technique to preserve him?
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| Stuckie on display in the Southern Forest World Museum Image Credit: All That's Interesting |
The properties of his wooden tomb did the work. Dry conditions inside the hollow of the tree allowed the corpse to dry without rotting. The upward draft of air apparently carried the scent of the dead animal away, so it wasn't devoured by insects or other creatures. The tannic acid of the oak, which is a natural desiccant, also helped absorb the moisture and hardened the animal's skin.
Bertha Sue Dixon, who runs a museum called Southern Forest World (a museum in Waycross dedicated to the history of forestry) explained, the position and shape of a tree, with air blowing upward, also helped keep Stuckie as he was. "It had like a chimney effect." Air going up and out the tree would have made it hard for animals to get a whiff. "So anything that would eat dead flesh would never know he was in the tree," Dixon said.
Later, the loggers donated it whole with the dog still stuck inside to the Southern Forest World Museum, where it remains on display until today.
References:
Snopes: Was This Dog Found ‘Mummified’ Inside the Trunk of a Tree? written by Dan Evon
Amusing Planet: Stuckie The Mummified Dog written by Kaushik Patowary
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