Mayes Taxidermy Studio

18/10/2024

The Chacma Baboon. A pretty formidable critter. They are very prolific in most of Southern Africa. In the wild, away from people, they are quite wary but can also be very destructive. One camp that I was in some time ago had the thatched roofs destroyed and wiring pulled out of outdoor lights by marauding troops of baboons! Many of the locals were glad to see their numbers at least thinned out some by hunters. I once drove around town with a mounted one sitting in my front seat, looking out the window. I certainly got a few "double takes" when vehicles would pull up next to me at the stoplight!

10/10/2024

Most of the King Eiders we do are from Alaska. This tabletop trio was from Greenland. They are one of the coolest birds to work on!

16/09/2024

One of our recent projects, "Sheep Mountain", has been nominated for "The Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin" contest. This nomination is for the mountain we built as shown below. If you feel so inclined, you can place a vote for this project we made, up to one vote per day per device. The voting starts September 16th at 8 am and ends September 24th at 5 pm. You can go to https://www.madeinwis.com/entries/sheep-mountain/ to cast your vote! You may also browse the other nominations on their main page. Feel free to share this page with others!! THANK YOU!

27/08/2024

40 years ago this past Friday it all started! I thank God, my wonderful wife and family, exceptional employees, great customers and treasured friends that helped “it all” get to this point! They ALL played a huge part! I would not have been able to do it without any of them! I am beyond blessed!! Not only to have the support from all of them but to be able to do something I truly enjoy all this time. What more could a person ask for! And yes, I’m still going and still enjoying it!

09/08/2024

An interesting way to do 4 big game pedestal mounts in the same space it would normally take to display 2. The base is made with a very unique wood called Pecky Cypress. The hollowed out areas are caused by a fungus. The fungus doesn't start to germinate until about 125 years of age! It gives a nice, rustic look to the piece. We have a limited amount of this wood available for future pieces.

22/07/2024

We have recently added a few "sheep to the mountain". We built this mountain a few years ago with room for additional sheep as the hunter completes his "grand slam". Last year we added a desert bighorn and last week we added a stone sheep. Doing these are a little more challenging than most lifesize mounts we do. For one... they literally involve mountain climbing! That may not sound like much until your hanging precariously off of a small ledge 12 or 15 feet up holding onto the mount with one hand and a rock with the other! The other challenging aspect is we have to make a fairly long drive to the trophy room prior to mounting in order to make final alterations to the form while there to insure that it looks good and the feet line up properly on the ledges. Typically, we also have to "tweak" the rock as well to make it work with the exact pose of the animal.

After that, we take the form back to the studio and mount it. Once it is mounted, dried and finished, it is taken back to the mountain for it's final installation.

In the end, it's a lot of effort but well worth it when it's all done!

21/06/2024

"Odd" -"Ball"?? This is a Sitka Blacktail. It was taken on Kodiak Island in November. It is what is referred to as a "stag". These bucks have very low testosterone. This is usually caused by an issue with their testicles. Either they are damaged or just did not form properly from birth. Typically, these "stags" do no lose their velvet or even shed their antlers... ever. Often, they will become what is referred to as a "cactus buck". This is just a mass of oddly formed, velvet covered antlers. As far as I know it only happens in whitetails, blacktails and mule deer and not elk or moose. Sometimes they have several dozen very small points per antler. Sometimes they will be like the one in this picture. Boone & Crockett and Pope & Young do not accept "stags" or "cactus bucks" in their record books.
https://mayestaxidermystudio.com/north-american-game.html

17/05/2024

Here's a true "Jumbo" perch! At 15 3/4", this one is hard to appreciate the size in a picture!

17/05/2024

Wisconsin trophy Coho Salmon. In spawning colors they rival the beauty of a brook trout!

14/05/2024

If you are against hunting ANY animals in Africa, including the most iconic such as elephant, leopard, lion and rhino, PLEASE read this article! It does a great job of explaining the true reality of what is actually happening with this in Africa. It is about elephants but applies to EVERYTHING else. Anti hunting laws and regulations are being crafted by sentiment rather than facts.

That’s a question once again being raised in the conservation community after a recent ruling by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service that will make it more difficult to i...

08/05/2024

Pretty cool video… worth watching!

A story of purpose and friendship in sheep country.Veteran of the United States Marine Corps and Purple Heart recipient, Jonathon Blank embodies the shared r...

05/04/2024

Here's a nice, central Wisconsin whitetail we recently finished. It is on a custom, finished walnut base with a burl inlay top.

27/03/2024

The King Eider. What many duck hunters see as the "Holy Grail" of their sport. For the most part, if you want a really good chance to get one you have to go to Greenland or Alaska's St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea. They are truly a thing of beauty and a hard to come by trophy.

20/03/2024

Shorthead Redhorse Sucker. Not what most people think of as a "trophy" fish. We've done a lot of fish for this guy. He says he only needs two more fish from Wisconsin to complete his collection... a musky and ... a bullhead. This made a really pretty mount though. He had some very good pictures of it right after he caught it which helped Fred to really nail the colors. It had some very intense red on the fins, especially the tail.

07/03/2024

With the weather the way it's been, one seems to think about these more often!

07/03/2024

Here's a nice Alaskan, pedestal mount moose we recently finished. Getting them down at eye level, you can really appreciate the size of these beasts. Whether it's up on the wall or a pedestal mount, they certainly take up some real estate! As a pedestal mount, you just get to see it "up close and personal" from every angle. The finished wood bases look nice but I'm partial to the more rustic look of barn board. This is the real deal too. No fake, plastic, cast or "chemically aged" stuff here. Real, 80 - 100 year old barn boards. Hand picked with just the right "patina".
https://mayestaxidermystudio.com/galleries.html

17/02/2024

Here's a recent grizzly we mounted. The customer wanted the wood frame of the habitat scene to match the weathered wood on the outside of a cabin he stayed at while hunting. He sent us a picture of it to work off of. We also used his field photos showing the vegetation in the area he was hunting to duplicate that as well. It's all about re-creating memories of the adventure!

10/02/2024

One of the guys who was in our group that hunted St. Paul Island last month for King Eider made an awesome video of the hunt. It is done very well. For anyone who is interested in this hunt it is worth the time spent viewing! The video shows more intimately what goes into this hunt!

Come see what a $10,000 duck hunt looks like- hunting King Eider on St. Paul Alaska. King Eiders Are the most prized duck in the world. Hunting the waters of...

08/02/2024

05/01/2024

Here's a dandy of a bull we just finished!

16/12/2023

Here's some eye candy now that many of this year's deer seasons are in the rear view mirror! This was our nicest buck from the 2022 season. Taken in North Dakota by Dustin Skaya of Marshfield, WI, this tank grossed 196 2/8! This is what most of us just dream about! Since it was taken in very early September, it still has some red, summer hair left. Though these early deer don't have the bulky, swollen neck look like later in the season, they do have a cool, sleek appearance that shows more detail. Congrats Dustin on an awesome, once in a lifetime trophy!
https://mayestaxidermystudio.com/galleries.html

29/10/2023

Last month, we finished a large, African savannah diorama. This week we finished another diorama for the same client. This one fits in right next to the previous one. This is primarily a central African jungle scene (on the right side) which transitions into an east African savannah. In the future, we will be adding a giant forest hog, two Hamadryas baboons and two colobus monkeys to the left side of the scene. This week we also added a Hyena and a Jackal to the larger scene.

The animals in the jungle scene kind of blend in. You have to look closely to see them all. They are, starting with the largest one and going clockwise, Bongo, Sitatunga, Bates's Pygmy Antelope, Peter's Duiker and Blue Duiker. These are some very unique animals for us to work on as they are only hunted in a limited area where their population allows it. These were all taken in Cameroon.

These two projects have required a lot of effort from design, to construction and finally delivery and set up. It is however, very rewarding to see the final product!

14/09/2023

Here is a large diorama we just finished. We built it off site. It was then disassembled and trucked to the clients home. We reassembled it in his trophy room in less than one day... and that included hanging the mounts above! Over the course of the next 2 years we will be putting additional animals in the scene. We are currently working on another, Central African jungle diorama that will go in the open area to the right of this one. Pictures to follow as we add more to this diorama and when we complete the next one!