Taxidermy

[DigitalGarden]

Has anyone seen the equivalent of human taxidermy before? There is a traveling exhibit called "Bodies". It's insanely educational and creative. The exhibit contains skinned, mummified corpses in different positions, poses, and cross sections. It's beautiful, really.

 

 

Both of these links may be considered NSFW, due to the fact that the bodies are not clothed.

A Video of the Exhibition

My cousin (who is studying medicine) saw it irl. For him, it was a good opportunity to learn stuff.

[RWyvern]

So I posted in this thread a couple of years back, and now I can safely say that I am entering the taxidermy business in my own small way. Soon obtaining a permit, too.

 

While for the most part it's down to cleaning bones and articulating skeletons, I have some dried specimens such as bird legs and wings. I'm not too much of a fan of novelty taxidermy (like this catcopter), but as long as whatever the taxidermy is respects the animal, I'm cool with it. In my eyes, it's a statement left saying 'I existed'. A much longer lasting reminder of a life than what it'd otherwise be. Sometimes they can be a powerful way to get across messages; I'm presently preparing a Pacific Black Duck for articulation. The bird was hit by a car just a street from where I live, and its body is destroyed. The shattered bones, once articulated in a certain manner, certainly will project an image as to why one should be careful driving on roads near animal populations.

 

What parts I don't plan to use, I lay outside for the other scavengers.

 

Not to mention, as a hobbyist creature designer, it's invaluable to have a good specimen to look at for references. A live creature moves too much, an image is trapped on a 2D plane.

 

I will be articulating and mounting my own pet rats' skeletons when they pass on. I myself hope to have my own skeleton used for something when I kick the bucket.

[hedy]

Taxidermy is an artform and a science at the same time and I absolutely admire it, when it's done respecting the animal. Seeing them in person gives you a real image of the animal and that's amazing. Here in Finland taxidermy is mostly done on birds and other small mammals and they're used in schools, sometimes just to show and sometimes when teaching biology.

 

I also went to see the "human" taxidermy exhibition Peoples and it was phenomenal! I was just studying anatomy at the moment and it really gave me a clear idea how the human body worked.

[yipyipbrrring]

I despise taxidermy. It's terrifying, sad, and makes me sick. The fact that people think stuffing dead animals bodies and just using them as trophies disgusts me. It's more respectful to bury or cremate it. Also, people wearing furs or scales or things of that sort is also disrespectful. And eating meat, actually. Although that's more understandable (If you eat meat, I don't really mind, but either of the others I do).

[flockof-doves]

I'm personally okay with it, if the animal itself wasn't killed JUST for taxidermy. I don't like the art made with it however, mixing different animals and such, I find it kind of cruel and disrespectful.

[TCA]

I despise taxidermy. It's terrifying, sad, and makes me sick. The fact that people think stuffing dead animals bodies and just using them as trophies disgusts me. It's more respectful to bury or cremate it. Also, people wearing furs or scales or things of that sort is also disrespectful. And eating meat, actually. Although that's more understandable (If you eat meat, I don't really mind, but either of the others I do).

Legitimately curious- what are your thoughts about taxidermy used for education, where the animal is difficult to find or see or study alive or may even be extinct? Or fur and leather and such from meat animals, so that the parts we can't eat aren't going to waste? As long as part of the animal is being used for human consumption, does that make it okay to use other portions of the body, or should we only use the bare minimum and bury or burn the rest?

Edited November 10, 2016 by TheCompleteAnimorph

[StormBirdRising]

I had a beautiful parakeet that I loved very much, when she died I took it to a taxidermist to immortalize her so I could put her back in her cage and keep her forever. He told me several times that sometimes, many times, people did not come back to pick up their pets. He showed me small dogs he had on pillows like they were still alive, and cats, and birds that people never came back for. I paid him in advance. When he telephoned me to pick her up I realized that I just couldn't, I just couldn't. He told me he had a nice cage to keep her in and not to worry about it.

After that I don't like to look at anything that is stuffed.It gives me a creepy feeling.

[RWyvern]

A taxidermist I once spoke to informed me that the term 'stuffed' is considered pretty offensive when referring to properly done taxidermy. Doing it properly is called 'mounting' and also involves a lot of prepatory work like carving accurate bases, replicating unpreserveable parts like eyes and sculpting the skins with meticulous detail.

 

It was an interesting piece of information.

 

I'm at a bit of a half-way point with deciding what to do with my rats when they pass. I originally planned to articulate their skeletons, but over time I've come to realise that there's a lot that tells of their lives on their skin. Vergil has thin fur from dominance overgrooming, half a tail from (I presume) improper handling while Dante has a notched ear and a scarred face. Given I already know of a local taxidermist I should have a clear answer, but on the other hand... cost. And Dante has an affliction on his left foot that I'd be curious as to if it left any mark on the bones, seeing as no matter what I do it just won't go away.

 

I suppose the risk of losing any pathological specimens is pretty much null since I'd then be having the little dears preserved? I'd appreciate any input.

[CYDA LUVA83]

I'm a big fan of taxidermy. As a hunter, aspiring veterinarian, and aspiring biological researcher, taxidermy is very useful.

For hunting, it's a reminder of the animal that gave its life to sustain yours and your family, an opportunity to admire it as it was when it was alive, and to show others of your accomplishment.

As a pre-veterinary student, taxidermy can introduce me to exotic animals that I may never meet otherwise. Now, usually in this case I would prefer wet specimens so the organs and other tissues could be studied, but beggars can't be choosers.

As a student who performs a fair bit of research in the topic of biology, taxidermy can assist official records when it comes to counting population and keeping track of poachers. Taxidermists may get several commissions during and after the hunting seasons, or in between hunting seasons. If someone brings in a freshly-killed animal (lets say a deer) during the off season, you can reasonably conclude that that animal was poached. A good taxidermist wouldn't take obviously poached animals and will ask you for proof of your hunting/fish license and the tag you got when you checked in the animal. Bag limits are in place for a reason. Taxidermy in regards to research can also help people (who are much more skilled than I) deduce the diet of animals that died a long time ago.

Taxidermy is extremely useful and beautiful- and while right now I only articulate skeletons and perform dissections, I hope to become skilled enough at it that I can preserve pets or my own kills from hunts. Currently I only have the articulated skeletons of a ball python, house cat, and rat (sadly don't have pictures of them put together atm or I would definitely photobomb you guys); as well as embryonic Timber Rattlesnakes collected from a dead female that was hit by a car. The embryos are used by our Reptile Rescue and Public Education program to educate people about how rattlesnakes give live birth as opposed to other species that lay eggs.

 

Some videos about using taxidermy as a tool of science:

Carl Akeley's Four Seasons:

(On the value of taxidermy for future generations)

The Man-Eating Lions of Tsavo:

(On the usage of taxidermy for study)

Where'd you get all those dead animals?

(On the collection of specimens)

 

Is there a way to embed videos on DC? I don't remember.

Edited November 11, 2016 by CYDA LUVA83

[RWyvern]

I know articulating skeletons doesn't exactly count as 'taxidermy' but since it's preserving parts of an animal I kinda just lump it under the same category.

 

Here's my third skeleton, the most accurate so far! Finished it just a couple days back. Bird feet are a genuine lot of fun.

 

Rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus moluccanus)

 

[TCA]

I never realized how long birds' necks were until I saw that ._.

[grimace]

I never realized how long birds' necks were until I saw that ._.

[HONKS OMINOUSLY]

[TCA]

I dunno if it's exactly taxidermy, but my boyfriend and I bought a mounted Madagascan Sunset Moth in a glass frame to hang on the wall. It's really pretty.

[RWyvern]

C. rhipheus, right? I have one too, a male. I should move it out to where it catches light better and isn't dwarfed by the atlas moth I put next to it...

 

Taxidermy, by definition, is 'the art of preparing and mounting the skin of animal', 'taxis' = arrangement, 'derma' = skin. So the preservation of insects doesn't fall under that. Nor do articulations, wet specimens, mummifications...

 

I just refer to 'preserving an animal, whole or partial, with any method' as taxidermy because I'm lazy.

 

I finished off articulating another rainbow lorikeet today, posed in flight with a dried and partially defleshed left wing. Tomorrow, when I have better lighting, I'll be able to take some photos of it.

[Seghs]

I like taxidermy, but I prefer skeletons, skulls, etc.

 

https://i.imgur.com/4okGUbV.png ~Linked for size~

Here's an american mink that I articulated! He was my very first articulation, he's got some flaws but I'm proud of him.

 

I honestly don't understand people's issue with it. Natural deaths are honestly one of the most cruel ways to die. Animals seldom lay down and peacefully go to sleep and pass, they're eaten alive by other animals, spend hours on the side of the road slowly dying after being hit by a car, dying of starvation or disease, etc. I can't comprehend how people can consider that more humane than a quick dispatch by a hunter/trapper.

 

As for the respect part, I find it much more respectful to preserve, remember and love the animal than to just toss it in a hole to rot and be forgotten or incinerate it until it's unrecognizable dust.

 

Also not sure where people are getting the "They're only killed for taxidermy" thing. If you actually look up hunting/trapping laws in most states it's illegal to kill an animal for a trophy, you NEED to use as much of it as you can. I don't know anyone who would go out, shoot an elk, and leave all the meat and just take the skin

Edited March 21, 2017 by SockPuppet Strangler

[TerraAnne]

I had to learn taxidermy in my wildlife classes as well as study IDing animals from mounts and skeletons. The first thing I had to do a taxidermy on was a fawn. My college got almost all of their animals from car strikes that the DOT would bring in frozen for us. However occasionally we would get some exotic from a persons deceased pet or a zoo donating a deceased animal for the ID and mount room. I've done several other mounts since then and keep furs, bones, and pretty much everything else for my native regalia and tools. I only get to try my trade on old deceased pets or in tact road kills... or carcasses I stumble upon while hiking..

[Husky51]

I am not against taxidermy in any way and if someone wants a trophy mounted, so be it.  I would love to see the 'Bodies' exhibit some time...   One humorous thing I saw was a sign advertising a taxidermy shop and a Veterinarian shop next to a Mexican restaurant called "The Iron Horse".  That was down in San Diego area.  Now, here in my city there is a large sign with a Gus's hamburger place ad; a Domino's Pizza ad and a Veterinarian's clinic... 

 

It makes me laugh...