Scientist spends days delving into carnivores' decomposition Deep inside Lubrecht Experimental Forest, death lies inside an electrified fence. For more than two years, a pack of carnivores has been decomposing under the watchful eye of Carleen Gonder. Piles of maggot casings rim shiny skulls, fangs bared before mummified fur faces. Yes: There's a field manual showing how to tell the time of death for most major game animals. It's full of stomach-turning photos showing how quickly insects start laying eggs, how soon flesh starts bloating and when it stops. There are bizarre tricks for hooking muscles to car batteries to see if they're less than four hours dead, and charts to test the reflectivity of drying eyeballs. A good investigator can get almost the hour of death on a carcass less than 4 or 5 days old. The only thing missing from the field guide is whether all these techniques also work on the carnivores that hunt game animals. The potential cases are limited only by experience. There's the rancher who claims that he shot a wolf that was harassing his cows. Does the time of death match the time he was running cattle in that area?....