by Luke Laggis - Daily News City Editor

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Rhinelander is many things: The industrial hub of the Northwoods, a shopping destination, a city in the heart of tourist country. It is also the collecting point for deer heads, bobcat carcasses, bird eggs and all kinds of other mammal and fish specimens.

From time to time headless deer carcasses can be seen on area roadsides. In fall, motorists may suspect a whitetail fanatic took the head of a nice buck after it had been hit by a vehicle. In late winter, with antlers long-since shed, the logic doesn’t play out.

The removal of heads from deer killed on area roads is the job of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the contractors it hires to dispose of the animals. At some point, the heads of most of those deer will end up in a giant walk-in freezer at the DNR's Rhinelander service center.

The freezer is a holdover from the days when the service center was home to Cleary’s Dairy, but it no longer holds ice cream.

Ron Eckstein, a wildlife biologist for the DNR in Rhinelander, said at any given time the freezer is 3/4 full with a variety of specimens.

“We collect a lot of biology specimens for sampling,” Eckstein said. “We rely on bio specimens for research for environmental quality.”

On a tour of the freezer last week, Eckstein pointed out everything from a bobcat and badger to a bald eagle and tiny cedar waxwing, which takes its name from the brilliant red specs at the tips of its wings.

“One of the nice things about being a wildlife biologist is getting to hold these things and see them up much closer than most people,” he said.

The specimens in the freezer make their way to the DNR as roadkills, incidental trappings, illegal shootings and other means. Some are evidence, some are just being held for testing.

The DNR requires trappers to turn in the carcasses of all bobcats they catch, and in some years fishers and otters as well. They use the specimens to understand reproduction rates in the species.

When a trapper catches something other than what his trap was set for, it’s known as an incidental.

“If it’s set up right you should trap the right thing, but occasionally you’ll catch something else,” Eckstein said.

The DNR requires that incidentals be brought to them as well. Incidentals collect in the freezer and are sent down to Madison where they will be used to educate natural resources students and trappers at fur school. The animals are pelted out and the pelts are sold to fund the trapper education program.

Testing for disease is the primary reason for collecting the deer heads. Testing for Chronic Wasting Disease is not as extensive in the Northwoods as in the southern part of the state where the disease is known to exist, but it is ongoing. The heads of road-killed deer are collected at various DNR offices around the area and sent to Rhinelander. When the freezer bin in Rhinelander is full, Eckstein and a colleague dissect them and remove the lymph nodes. The lymph nodes are then sent to Madison where they are tested for CWD and bovine tuberculoses. So far, neither have been detected in the immediate area, though CWD has made its way into the state and bovine tuberculoses has been documented in Michigan and northern Minnesota.

“We’re on the constant lookout for anything like that coming into our deer herd,” Eckstein said.

Eagles are also frequently found in the DNR’s freezer. Dealing with them is a little different. By executive order, all bald eagles are to be turned over to the federal government. The DNR sends them to Madison where they are necropsied and eventually shipped to a repository in Colorado. From there, parts of the eagles are distributed to Native Americans around the country for religious purposes. They are the only people who can legally possess these items. Eckstein said most of the eagles that make their way to the freezer are hit by cars, by far their most common cause of death.

For now, the majestic eagle rests frozen atop a pile of deer heads next to a shelf full of loon eggs, all awaiting further study and an eventual trip to Madison.

“Most things are only there temporarily,” Eckstein said.

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