Skullhunter Taxidermy

12/05/2024

Restoration of a Chicken Skeleton

Since I haven't posted anything here for a while, I'd like to share my latest project with you.

I was tasked by the vocational school teacher at the Zookeeper-School in Brake to restore the chicken skeleton from the teaching materials collection. As you can see in the left picture, the skeleton has suffered greatly over the years and was not optimally prepared beforehand. Rib and spine bones were broken, the posture didn't match that of a chicken (it would have tipped forward if alive in this position), and the feet were completely encased in a type of resin. Additionally, the limbs were loosely connected with simple external wires.

For the restoration, I first thoroughly degreased the skeleton, which fortunately also caused the resin blocks to detach from the feet. Then, I rewired the limbs, embedding the wires into the bones, resulting in not only improved stability but also a more appealing appearance. Finally, I glued all the connection points between the bones to make the skeleton very stable.

In the end, I also applied substrate in the form of wood shavings to the wooden base to provide a suitable (barnyard) environment for the chicken.

I'm very pleased with the outcome, the restoration was definitely worth it. What do you think?

25/06/2022

Skull and Shell of a South-east Asian box turtle (Cuora amboinensis)

24/06/2022

Skull and Shell of a Malayan box turtle (Cuora amboinensis kamaroma)

22/06/2022

Skull of a Patagonian mara (Dolichotis patagonum)

21/06/2022

Skull of a Meerkat (Suricata suricatta)

20/06/2022

Here again the skeleton of the Lesser short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus brachyotis) in comparison

Above: Skeleton before restoration.

Below: Skeleton after restoration.

20/06/2022

PART 3: Restoration of a flying fox skeleton

After all the bones have been placed in the correct position, the skeleton is now finish. I think the effort was definitely worth it, what do you think of the finished skeleton :) ?

19/06/2022

PART 2: Restoration of a flying fox skeleton

After the skeleton was fully degreased, I was able to move on to adjusting the skeleton to the correct posture. To do this, the toes were cut off and glued back on correctly, the wings were spread out and the legs were positioned correctly. In addition, the ribs were reconnected to the sternum.

The aim should be a flying fox flying slightly diagonally downwards.

Tomorrow the pictures of the finished skeleton will follow :)

18/06/2022

PART 1: Restoration of a flying fox skeleton

I received this skeleton of a Lesser short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus brachyotis) from a friend for my private collection. Unfortunately, the skeleton was in relatively poor condition. It was very greasy and the posture was not quite right, the toes pointed to the side. So the first step in the restoration was proper degreasing.

This is the most important step in bone preparation, since fatty acids form over time due to natural fats (which due to their nature cannot be preserved) due to external influences such as oxygen, light and humidity, which damage the bone irreparably.

PART 2 for the restoration will follow tomorrow :)

17/06/2022

Skull of a Parma wallaby (Notamacropus parma)

16/06/2022

Skull of a Red-necked wallaby (Notamacropus rufogriseus)

18/04/2022

Village weaver
(Ploceus cucullatus)

18/04/2022

Spotted dikkop
(Burhinus capensis)

14/04/2022

06/07/2021

Here is one of my last projects:

Most recently, in team work with my taxidermist colleague Jan Angrick, I prepared this Brahma chicken (Gallus gallus. f. domestica) for a friend of mine.

24/04/2021

Deformed shell of a Yellow-bellied slider (Trachemys scripta scripta).

The animal was probably kept incorrectly as a young animal, which is why the shell is badly deformed. The animal was then confiscated and lived in the shelter for five years. Nobody expected that the animal would get that old!

18/04/2021

"What do you actually do for a living?"
"I'm currently training to be a taxidermist"
"So you stuff dead animals."

No….

Everyone who works in my job has probably had one or a similar dialogue. So I thought to myself, I'll make a short post here to dispel old prejudices:

As a taxidermist, you usually don't “stuff” animals. You don't do that simply because the animals would then probably look like in this video: Round like a balloon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yltlJEdSAHw

As a taxidermist, the first thing we do is to skin the animal. Then we clean the skin by removing fat, meat and connective tissue. After that, the skin is preserved and made durable in various ways, depending on the skin type and intended use. If this work is carried out correctly, the
skins can be preserved for more than 100 years if properly stored and thus for posterity.

If an animal preparation (a so-called dermoplasty) is to be produced, the taxidermist creates an artificial body that is based on the anatomy of the corresponding animal. The preserved skin is then pulled over this artificial body in order to then work out the details such as the facial expressions:

On the two pictures you can see a body that I made for a rat preparation. This is a more traditional method of body production, in which the artificial body is wrapped from wood wool. Mostly nowadays, however, especially with larger animals, already finished bodies made of PU foam are used, as this makes the work much easier. However, the traditional method is still used by many taxidermists, because it allows the body to be adapted to the respective animal much more individually.

The body in the pictures is, of course, far from finished in this form, but only serves as a demonstration. The body should still have eyes and the details have to be wrapped and modeled so that the animal looks as lifelike as possible in the end.

I hope I was able to dispel some of the prejudices with this :)

14/04/2021

Skull of a Chacoan mara (Dolichotis salinicola)

12/04/2021

Skull of a Giant Papillon (Oryctolagus cuniculus f. Domestica)

06/04/2021

Skeleton of a Central bearded dragon (Pogona vitticeps).

07/02/2021

Restoration of a cow skull, before and after.

There are around 3 months between the two pictures, in which the skull was cleaned by me in a mixture of water, salt and detergent (Dash). In the end, I bleached the skull with H2O2.

I think the restoration was definitely worth it!

08/12/2020

Skinned juvenile Yellow-spotted rock hyrax (Heterohyrax brucei) 🤩

29/11/2020

Yesterday we finished the head-shoulder-mount of the greater Kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) for the moment. Now we just have to do the fine work, such as coloring.

Many thanks to for the many tips and for the workshop!

27/11/2020

Workshop-time in the Taxidermy school!

Today and tomorrow my classmates and I prepare a head-shoulder mount of a male greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) together with the taxidermist 😎✌🏻!

25/11/2020

Roughly fleshed lynx skull

24/11/2020

Today, I removed the fur of this Lynx (Lynx lynx) from a german zoo for a skeleton montage 😎✌🏻

04/11/2020

Today I built a mini diorama for the eggshell of a Crowned lapwing (Vanellus coronatus). To do this, I recycled the packaging of my headphones and filled them with sand, stones and dried grass to recreate a nest.

13/08/2020

Before and after. Colored glass eyes for the cast of an Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua)

#0211

11/08/2020

Before and after. Colored glass eyes for the cast of an American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus)

#0211

10/08/2020

Today i'm prepared this European mantis (Mantis religiosa). My first prepared Insect!