Curious as to what the most difficult animal is to mount? I guess that question could be taken in any number of ways- takes the longest time, hard to get the correct look, requires the most handwork etc. Just wondering what our experts here might say. My totally uneducated opinion would be some big cat.

Lifesize and make look GOOD?? Lion/leopard.
But all cats are hard to make look alive.

I would have to say it is the odd sized animal that takes the most work. When every thing fits well it all comes together well. Most of the work in taxidermy is done before what most people think of as the "mounting" process (mounting, positioning and gluing the skin on the form). If you have rushed the prep work you will likely run into problems. The key is to have everything "done before you start" if that makes sense (test fitting the skin, preping the form, thinning the skin, etc..)

When you have an "out sized" animal, either a small animal af a certain species or an extremely large one, you have to make the form fit the skin and that increases the amount of work. Every now and then you get an animal to work on and no commercial forms are available. That can be a bit of work as well. Extreme form alterations also add work.

I never was a fan of birds, rabbits etc..as some of them can have extremely thin and fragile skins that can tear easily. In fact I would much rather mount a kudu than a fat little teal that has been shot from 10 yards with a full choke.
Did I mention I do not do birds anymore?

Any animal that takes a lot of sewing is also very time consuming (lifesized baboons etc..)
There is no fast way to do large animals like cape buffalo, etc..

Even people who do not study or "know" animals can tell when a cat looks wrong because there is so much expression and life in those eyes. A screw up with those light colored, forward facing eyes can ruin the look of the whole mount.

Domestic sheep. Reminds me of a joke: which animal in Wyoming has the best hearing? Answer: Sheep. They can hear a zipper open at a quarter of a mile.

Grafton covered this pretty well;

And it is a question I get quite often from non hunters curious about the craft. I have nearly always responded first that; “ for most taxidermists, it is the one they know the least about and do not have adequate reference material”.

When it comes to tedious and time consuming; big life-size animals with short hair call for lots of fine stitching and accurate detail, which certainly qualifies leopards and lions. The other thing that I think makes cats a top qualifier is that they possess a tremendous amount of facial skin to facilitate those huge yawns and snarls, their 360 ear movements and wide eyed expressions. Many manikins are designed to fill this head space vs allowing the skin to actually be placed naturally into place for the intended expression.(You will find similar issues with the neck waddles on an eland.)

Best regards
Mike Ohlmann
Mike's Custom Taxidermy Inc.
4102 Cane Run Rd.
Louisville KY 40216
502-448-1309
Mike@mikescustomtaxidermy.com
www.mikescustomtaxidermy.com

Grafton,

You'd appreciate this - I shot what I thought was a really nice mallard so decided to have it mounted. About a month later my taxidermist called to inquire where I'd shot it. At first I wouldn't tell him (my honeyhole spot) but after some urging I finally did. It was on a nearby lake that had homes nearby.

He then tells me that the mallard was so big he had to use a goose form!

After some discussion it was determined that it was most likely one of those houses hand fed, 'pet' ducks. LOL

Oddly enough, I've seen more pitiful mounts of small game animals that looked like road kill. Unless a taxidermist has a passion for little critters, it appears to be an overlooked genre. I've noticed several young ladies that could do excellent small game work, but only a handful of guys. One's wife is a member here. Chris makes a Squirrel look alive.
LDK

jessica simpson

House pets, particularly dogs. There is no way to bring them back the way they were.

quote:

House pets, particularly dogs. There is no way to bring them back the way they were.

I think that pets present a degree of difficulty primarily because unlike most game species the selective and cross breeding creates a wide variance of breeds/subspecies, thus no standard manikins.

Also Pet owners are fully familiar with their pet’s specific body language and expressions which are also not standardized. However with carful study of customer provided photos of the pet, freeze-drying is a very good option.

Some samples of freezedried pets can be seen here

Best regards
Mike Ohlmann
Mike's Custom Taxidermy Inc.
4102 Cane Run Rd.
Louisville KY 40216
502-448-1309
Mike@mikescustomtaxidermy.com

I have seen some freeze dried versions, but still looks like a lot of work! Looks like you have it figured out and those look very nice.

One question, off topic-- What happens to the entrails? Is all the muscle, brain, and gut just dried inside the animals? Do bugs ever cause a problem down the road? Sorry for the hi-jack, but I am interested.

L. David pretty much nailed it in my opinion. Small game has always been the least important part of the taxidermy chain and as a result very few people can even do a passable job on it. Henry Wichers Inchemuk is the classic small game taxidermist and I've heard him say many times that he regrets more taxidermists don't find enough importance in that area to excell. For every good squirrel mount I see, I can show you 20 that are horrendous.

MC Freezedried anmals are eviscerated and have those organs replaced by polyfill before being resewn.

Squirrels.....

House pets??!!! I actually thought that response was meant as a joke that turned out to be in outstandingly bad taste. Then the next post, explaining the difficulties of "pet taxidermy", totally floored me.

Do people actually do this?

Disclaimer: I am an avid hunter and carnivore, have a few nice pieces of professionally done taxidermy and a truckload of DIY skull mounts and antlers/horns, and am not a tree-hugging PETA-phile...but I would just as soon freeze-dry a deceased relative as I would a deceased pet.

jwm,

The ultimate in "pet" mounts.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/pet/trigger.html

The one African animal I think most taxidermist have trouble with is the eland. I would say one out of ten of the eland mounts I have seen just don't look "right". It may be the hair loss on old bulls, or all that excess skin that you have to do something with. The best looking eland mount I ever saw was shot on a ranch in Texas. I assume that is because the skin went straight to the tannery and had no hair loss, and the taxidermist who did it was familiar with eland anatomy.

Okay, I can't stand it. And, since this thread has run it's course...

the most difficult animal to mount is...

the one you intend(ed) to shoot!

(I'm almost ready to find a cape for the consolation set of bushbuck horns a tracker found me after I lost a wounded one. They appear in my avater...)

When I did Taxidermy, The hardest for me was Doves and Grouse.
If a person wanted a dove mounted I would have him bring in more than 1

quote:

Originally posted by Outdoor Writer:
jwm,

The ultimate in "pet" mounts.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/pet/trigger.html

The sad thing about this ... it will all be sold off. There will be an auction to sell everything off, and I mean everything!
http://www.nationalenquirer.co...gger/celebrity/67877

http://www.royrogers.com/announcement.html

http://www.highnoon.com/hn-rrauction.htm




Why didn’t the Rogers family sell Trigger, Buttermilk and Bullet to a museum?
High Noon, in conjunction with the Rogers family, did try to place Trigger, Buttermilk and Bullet with a national museum, so that they could be enjoyed by all Americans. However, the recession has left most institutions struggling to maintain their staffs -- let alone expand their permanent collections.

Roy had a tremendous collection of African hunting trophies in his museum as well!
Will there be other auctions from the museum?
Roy's guns, fishing equipment, hunting items and Lincoln Continental will be sold in Denver at Brian Lebel's Old West Auction on June 26. (www.codyoldwest.com)



Now that's a car, what is a car!



I'm a sad Buckaroo!
John.

Boy, does the picture of "NellyBelle" bring back memories!

A long, LONG time ago, when I was just a lad, I got to ride in NellyBelle, along with Pat Bertram in a 4th of July parade in Mobridge, South Dakota...