Stuckie was stuck in the trunk of a chestnut tree, and nature preserved his body for eternity. And not just his body, but his attitude too: he was unable to give up.

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Nowadays, thanks to AI, it is much more difficult to determine which photos and videos circulating on the internet are real and which are not, but the story of the dog stuck in the tree trunk is true, and today we also know what might have happened to it.

This is how nature preserved the dog stuck in the tree trunk for posterity

Stuckie's memento is on display at the Southern Forest World Museum (Waycross, Georgia, USA), where it was moved in 2002. The dog was discovered in the 1980s by loggers who found the mummy at a height of about 8.5 meters, presumably chasing a raccoon or some other animal into the hollow tree. According to experts, the hound-type quadruped was naturally preserved, probably sometime in the 1960s.

Kristina Killgrove, former assistant professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina, explained to Newsweek what favorable conditions allowed the body to remain virtually intact. According to Killgrove, chestnut trees contain tannin (tannic acid), a natural drying agent used to tan animal hides and prevent decomposition. The low moisture content caused by the wood therefore prevented microbial activity that would have caused the dog's remains to decompose.

Treeing Walker Coonhound

Normally, when a human or animal dies, the microbes in the body begin to break down the body freely, as biological processes no longer keep them under control. "Without them, the microbes begin to eat the body, and then the microorganisms in the intestines start the decomposition process. They multiply and take control of the body," explains Killgrove. The body swells, decomposes, and bacteria, fungi, insects, and other animals consume the remains. However, another phenomenon certainly contributed to Stuckie's mummification.

The museum exhibition guide also mentions another important detail: "A chimney effect developed in the hollow of the tree, resulting in an upward air flow. This carried away the smell of the dead animal, which would otherwise have attracted insects and other creatures that feed on animals."

How did the dog get inside the tree?

The bottom of the tree was probably hollow, and the animal, pursued by Stuckie with bloodlust, may have fled there. As it climbed up the tree, the hollow began to narrow, and at one point the determined dog could no longer move up or down, so the chestnut oak became its coffin.

Roger Prater, a raccoon hunter, lives in Georgia, about 30 km from where Stuckie was found. He is considered a real authority on Treeing Walker Coonhound, and he said: "The area where he was found was a strong raccoon hunting area, a large, hilly forest section where there was hardly anything except smugglers and paper growers. I heard about this dog at the barber shop, and then the story appeared in the local newspaper. Someone took the dog and the log to the county courthouse before it ended up in the museum."

Redbone Coonhound

Although dozens of people claimed ownership of the dog, Prater said he knew the truth: the four-legged animal belonged to his cousin, who had lost his Redbone Coonhound and searched the forest for weeks without finding any trace of it. Letting dogs loose to track down game was not unusual at the time, nor is it today. The only difference is that now they are tracked with GPS collars, rather than hunters trying to locate them by their barking.

Although the coloring of the classic Redbone Coonhound does not initially match the description of the brown and white Stuckie, according to Prater, Redbones can have white patches on their chest and sometimes on their paws. Whoever Stuckie was in his life, we trust that his soul has found peace.

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