The Taxidermy Library
taxidermy: n. [f. Gk taxis arrangement + derma skin.] The art of preparing, stuffing, and mounting the skins of animals with lifelike effect.
The Taxidermy Library is your source for information on the subject of professional taxidermy, providing a wide variety of annotated links. This site is meant to be a starting point for finding more information and we do our best to keep that information current and fresh (no pun intended). Whether you are an individual interested in starting out in the field, a professional, a student doing research, or a museum or store interested in displaying mounts, you should be able to find what you need here.
The art of taxidermy involves many skills and talents. A good taxidermist must be at once a skilled carpenter, sculptor, painter, tanner, and woodworker. Taxidermy incorporates these skills with a knowledge of anatomy into a lifelike reproduction of the animal for permanent display.
Modern taxidermy has come a long way from the typical notion of "stuffed" deer heads and grizzly bears. Modern mounts are no longer stuffed with rags or padding as they were in the past. Mounts of game-heads, birds, fish, reptiles, and small mammals incorporate the actual fur, feathers, scales, or horns of the animal mount over a scuplted polyurethane foam mannikin or "form." Eyes are made from glass, eyelids are scuplted from clay, and epoxy or wax is used to reproduce soft-tissue parts such as noses and mouths. Some mounts (especially salt-water fishes) use no parts of the animal at all. They are completed re-created from man-made materials, allowing a catch-and-release angler to release his or her catch, and still have a trophy of the accomplishment made from a photograph.
A Brief Description of the Sections
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- Supplies
- Links for information on what sort of materials are used in modern taxidermy, and where to buy them.
- Professional Associations
- Links to and information about the various professional associations in the world of taxidermy.
- Learning
- Information and links about where and how to learn taxidermy.
- Examples
- Links to selected professionals' web pages, showing examples of their work.
- Contact Us
- A simple form for sending in suggestions, comments, and criticism, and also for reporting broken links and bad URLs.
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