I walked into the compound, and stopped to don my protective clothing including a P2 gas mask, with carbon filters to stop 'nuisance' organic vapours, a vital necessity. I pushed my way through through the plastic sheeting walling off my subjects, and stared at the passive dead eyes staring straight back at me. But something was different... something, or someone, was where they shouldn't be.
DUN DUN DUN!
I've spent the past fortnight setting up and conducting my crocodile and fish decay experiment. It was a mad rush of buying plastic tubs and glass tanks, filling them with sand and water, buying 9 bream from a fishmonger (who I'm sure would have been disappointed to hear that I didn't plan to eat them!), collecting the humanely euthanased crocs, photographing, measuring, and weighing the crocs and fish, and finally placing them in their respective tanks. I buried some of the crocs and fish immediately, leaving the others to 'float and bloat'. Then I will bury half of those who sink after floating, and leave the other half alone.
But just like a bad zombie horror novel, someone had risen from their grave. They're still dead, so I guess the zombie part isn't exactly true, but they're doing exactly what they shouldn't be doing! Alas, it was one of the buried crocodiles, bloated and floating up through a 20 cm layer of sand.
DUN DUN DUN!
I've spent the past fortnight setting up and conducting my crocodile and fish decay experiment. It was a mad rush of buying plastic tubs and glass tanks, filling them with sand and water, buying 9 bream from a fishmonger (who I'm sure would have been disappointed to hear that I didn't plan to eat them!), collecting the humanely euthanased crocs, photographing, measuring, and weighing the crocs and fish, and finally placing them in their respective tanks. I buried some of the crocs and fish immediately, leaving the others to 'float and bloat'. Then I will bury half of those who sink after floating, and leave the other half alone.
But just like a bad zombie horror novel, someone had risen from their grave. They're still dead, so I guess the zombie part isn't exactly true, but they're doing exactly what they shouldn't be doing! Alas, it was one of the buried crocodiles, bloated and floating up through a 20 cm layer of sand.
"What? You were buried and floated up through 20 cm of sand WHILE DEAD? And you ate the whole wheel of cheese? How'd you do that? Heck, I'm not even mad; that's amazing!"
Trying to bury it again while it's floating would be futile: like trying to bury a balloon. The plan is to drain the water out of it's tank, bury it, and put just enough water back in to wet the sediment but not allow it to float again. This means I'll also have to drain the water out of the other tanks with buried crocs/fish, so they all undergo the same conditions. It was still an interesting result, but a bit frustrating!
Image courtesy subtubitles.tumblr.com.
