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That is because Balto's pelt was exposed to bright light. When an animal dies, it's unable to retain the color it was if it's exposed to too much light. So really Balto has just faded, not necessarily decomposed.

And had they simply been buried, they would have eventually deteriorated to nothing anyway...except the bones themselves.

It was not nearly as common as it is today to inter pets or even working animals in graves or tombs back then. Except for the idle rich. Especially with grave stones over the graves themselves.

In any case, even if they had done that, Balto would most likely have been buried in Cleveland, and both Togo and Fritz somewhere in New England (given their last few years in each case). Not anywhere near the Balto statue and musher monument in Central Park in NYC.

I know that, I just think it would be more pleasant if they had just been buried.

It was just a thought having them buried in NY. -shrug-

Just now finding this. BRINGING IT BACK. Wow. Balto was only 11? Fritz? Didn't know he was even there. I got a lot to catch up on... Also didn't know that Togo's skeleton was mounted... Kinda creepy. I get freaked out by skeletons, so I won't be visiting that. Going to have to visit all of their pelts though.

There is no record of Balto's birth date, or even who his parents even were. Even if there are speculations, none of them have any solid evidence to confirm it.

MB: you got a strong point to that. I will have to look into this a little more.

I would suggest that you visit http://www.baltostruestory.net to learn more. I would also recommend that you purchase the Cruelest Miles. http://www.amazon.com/The-Cruelest-Mile ... 0393325709

Thanks. I could use all the information I could get!

In a conversation with Steve Misencik of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History some years ago, he said there was a report that the dog known as Sye at the Brookside Zoo was also preserved after he died, and that his mount had been on display at some department store in Cleveland in the mid-1930's. Whether or not this is true and what happened to the mount is not known.

In a post by Baltolover33 several ones above on this page, the question is asked about Balto being 11 years old at the time of his death. Page 254 of The Cruelest Miles book says when Balto became ill in March, 1933 the newspapers reported the dog as being eleven years old. Not true. All of the Cleveland papers that ran articles about Balto's condition reported he was fourteen years old at the time. The book authors go on to say that Balto "...may in fact have been as old as fourteen." (at the time of his death), but their statement about the Cleveland papers reporting Balto's age as eleven is not correct.