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Zach Kent
Ms. Bennett
British Literature
9 September 2011
Taxidermy
Do you know how to stuff an animal? Taxidermy is the art of preserving the skins of
mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and making lifelike replicas of animals for study
or for exhibition in museums and private collections. The word is derived from the Greek word
taxis, meaning arrangement, and derma, meaning skin (taxidermy). There are many people that
still do taxidermy all over the world today. Taxidermy has grown and developed a lot since the
early forms of taxidermy hundreds of years ago. People use taxidermy for a lot of different
reasons then they did when it first came around.
Important people that came up with new ways of taxidermy are rather interesting. Three
important people that were related and created new ways of taxidermy were Charles Ethan
Akeley, Amborose Daigre, and Roland Howser. Charles Ethan Akeley was an American
naturalist and explorer known for his revolutionary taxidermy work in museum exhibition (Carl
Ethan Akeley). Akeley was very realistic with his work and would put the animals in their
natural habitat (Carl Ethan Akeley). Akeley traveled all around Africa to study, hunt, and collect
specimens; he then developed a mounting method that resulted in a unique realistic way of
displaying wildlife (Carl Ethan Akeley). He also invented an Akeley cement gun. The Akeley

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cement gun was used for mounting animals. Akeley was the first person to capture motion
picture. Akeley motion pictures were of the gorillas in their natural environment. Roland Howser
developed the freeze-dry method (Taxidermy). The freeze-dry method was a solid foam model
was usually used on specimens of reptiles, fish, birds, insects, and small mammals. The solid
foam model method was developed in the 1960's by Ambrose Daigre (Taxidermy).
The history of taxidermy goes back for a very long time. During the Victorian era,
taxidermy was an object of inner design and decor. By the 1900’s, almost every town had a
tannery business. Taxidermy was born in England, out of practicality more than anything
(History of Taxidermy.) When new species of mammals, fowl and fish were still being
discovered, naturalists sought to preserve them for classification (History of Taxidermy.)
Scientist get the taxidermist to do this because when they find new spices scientist have
something that looks life like so that when the scientist discover another one the scientist can
compare them to see if the animals are the same. Initially, taxidermy was a crude and
unsophisticated process. Animals were literally gutted, the animals hides were then tanned and
stuffed with cotton or straw and sewed back up for display (History of Taxidermy.) Early on
when taxidermist mounted the animals the taxidermist would put cotton and straw in the animal.
This is why it also got the name stuffing animals because the taxidermy would literally stuff the
animals. Now a day’s people use silicone and molded foams that the skin will stretch around to
complete the mount. These early attempts didn't go over so well, though, because the animal was
never properly preserved. This meant that the eyes, nose, teeth and tongue would eventually rot
(History of Taxidermy.) Taxidermist preserves the animal so that the animal doesn’t rot and will
look really good for a very long time. Recent taxidermy uses glass eyes and replaces the tongue
and nose so that they can prevent the animals eyes and nose from rotten and ruining the mount.

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After the taxidermist finishes the mount the hair on the animal has to be brushed. Taxidermist
also use an airbrush some of the animal. For example when mounting a deer, the deer’s nose will
need to be airbrushed and also around the mouth area has to be airbrushed.
Taxidermists mount all types of different animals and depending on the animal, the time
could. Taxidermy can be done on all vertebrate species of animals, including mammals, birds,
fish, reptiles, and amphibians. Some exotic taxidermy involves animals such as trophy lions,
zebra, sable, impalas, nyala, wildebeest, wart hogs, and ring-tailed lemurs. Then there are other
types of animals such as deer, turkey, ducks, and fish which are not so exotic. How much time it
takes to mount an animal depends on what type of animal you are mounting. Mounting a deer
will take anywhere from 10 to 12 hours depending on how skilled the person is and mounting
something like a zebra or a lion would take a lot longer than it would do to mount a deer. The
difficulty between mounting the two different types of animals is very great. Non exotic animals
such as something like a deer are much easier to mount than a exotic animal such as a lion
because deer are smaller and doesn’t take as much material as the lion would to do the mount.
People that do taxidermy make pretty good money. The average salary for a taxidermist
is around 31,000 dollars a year. Many years ago when taxidermy first began the people didn’t do
it as a job. The people just did it for themselves. Now a day’s people do taxidermy for a living.
There are people that have a full time job by mounting animals. Taxidermist work year round
and have different animals during different seasons.
Taxidermy is the art of preserving the skins of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and
fish, and making lifelike replicas of animals for study or for exhibition in museums and private

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collections. Taxidermy has been growing over the years and is still growing today. Many people
are getting in to taxidermy because it is fun to do and you make good money.