The World Taxidermy Championship visited Springfield, Illinois. See what it takes to be an expert taxidermist and why it may be different than you expected.
I'm vegetarian and wildlife/nature conservationist and I'm really into vulture culture (people who love to collect remains and taxidermy). You can be an animal lover and enjoy taxidermy as well. You don't have to kill an animal for it. I only work with animals that I have found or that have been given to me and died from a natural death. Taxidermy connects many interests of mine- animals, death and art. They're beautiful and by preserving them, we can keep enjoying the beauty of some of these creatures. So as long as the animal wasn't killed for sport or beauty purposes, I'm all for taxidermy. It doesn't have to involve hunting or killing it.
Really extraordinary... I'm glad I happened across this. As a youth, I spent lots of time in Natural History Museums and became inspired about wildlife from those extremely valuable exhibits. I would so much rather see the animals artistically and faithfully preserved, than simply lost to dust... thank you for sharing this.
Sad why must there always be race put into something this is what people love to do no matter what color you are you don't see any females in this video either but some of the best in the world are females also please keep from showing hate in the one last thing that brings me peace
I disliked the bit about mass producing the model for others. The taxidermy loses its uniqueness if its mass produced, i have more of an appreciation for one-offs, fantastic examples of taxidermy that could only have come from one place.
I could always tell, just from looking at a taxidermy mount, if the mount was made by someone who actually cared about the living animal, and I certainly see it in these. There is so much life in these mounts that I don't get that disgusting retched feeling I get when I see mounts made by people who enjoy hunting more than animals themselves.
@@mimimary16 just in case you didn't know, people hunt animals for FOOD just like many other creatures on earth. taxidermy preserves the beauty of nature so we can remember and admire the animals long after they're gone. it's a great way to use more of the animal and decrease waste. your comment was extremely ignorant.
@@mimimary16 also, if you actually knew anything about taxidermy, you'd know they don't use the whole carcass. it's just the leather with the fur still attached, there are no guts in the finished product. the artists will sculpt a form to put the leather on and it's almost the exact same thing as a leather couch or a fur coat. you need to grow up and educate yourself.
@@mimimary16 Sometimes there are issues with populations or particular individual predators who learn dangerous behaviours that need to be culled. Deer in Scotland for example must be controlled this way as all their natural predators excepting humans have been wiped out. The advantage to deer though is that it’s really tasty.
Tea Zidic "Life after Death". Think about if your pet dog (or other animal) had died and you were very upset about it, and didnt want to let them go. Make them into taxidermy. Life after death.
Tanya Turtle-I've thought about that just to creap people out. Have you posed funny and while your alive record something funny. Then have someone hook it up to a lazer sensor at the front door so when someone walks in they hear you and see you. I've always thought more of a creepy thing than cool. Thats why i let my beloved pets that die of old age rott in the ground and only preserve things i find in the wild with no emotional attachment. If any of this makes sense. Lol. But yeah i've jokingly thought about that to.
Wow, I'm impressed. I'm really impressed! Oh my god this is what taxidermy is? Yeah tottally agree oh my god it's litterally artistic like a animal painter or sculpter with animal stuff. I'm glad to be an artist, we, humans, can be incredible with our hands and eyes. Thanks to share it! Maybe someday I will try it, this totally change the way I saw taxidermy.
I’ve got a real respect for taxidermist. My family on my dads side and me we go deer hunting and my uncle he shot this huge, 8 point buck. It was a beautiful creature, really. So after we all carved it up and stuff, storing the meat all that, we sent in the bust of it and when we got it back my uncle was crushed. The eyes were green of all things. One of the ears was just missing, its muzzle messed up. My uncle was pissed! The skin was just beyond repair (at least from anyone in Louisiana!) so he just got the skull and horns cleaned up. Such a shame.
Wow! Amazing talent and passion for the craft! I clicked here by chance and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the video. It is truly inspiring! Thank you for sharing it!
The international wildlife museum here in Tucson az is pretty cool. It's a huge taxidermy zoo. They've got giraffes, elephants, a giant Moa and even a thylacine. They've got all the normal stuff too, but also stuff like snakes, lizards, just things that you might not typically see mounted and preserved. They put sections of fur infront of each animal too so you can see what they'd feel like. Which is really cool because you'd never be able to get close enough to a bengal tiger or wolverine to touch it. And it keeps people from touching the exhibits too lol.
My father was a notable taxidermist for quite a few years and taught me several things. He wasnt a great person and he was even less of a great father but he was a very talented artist indeed.
Kind of glad I watched this, learned something new. I always thought from growing up that Taxidermy was basically embalmed corpses, which is disgusting and terrifying to think about
for everyone concerned: most taxidermists will only work with animals who die of natural causes or who were already dead for meat. they're actually pretty into respecting nature.
I think lynx are genuinely kind of odd looking animals. Their back legs are so long they look like they're out of proportion to our eyes that are more used to other felines.
I am actually extremely impressed that guy was only an hr into building the raccoon. Would have taken me like 3 or 4 days if not a week of 8 hrs a day to get to that point.
I'm pretty sure that when I have my own house of apartment it'll be full of framed insects and taxidermy. They're just so beautiful, in a sense decomposition is a waste of perfectly good skin
I was going to have my very first pet, which was a cat, taxidermied, but I felt like she would've never slept in peace of I did that. So, I ended up just having her cremated instead, and I keep her ashes in a beautiful oak urn, which I keep in front of a large window with a beautiful view. She LOVED sitting in the sun in front of windows, so it's only fitting.
Why? Fur coats are certainly a lot more useful. I think they have a weird reputation in warmer countries because people wear them that don't need them, but if you spend any time in really cold environments, fur is just way warmer than any synthetic. And why don't people ever seem to freak out in the same way about leather shoes? Not that I object to taxidermy if the animal dies naturally or is killed for meat, but it seems very odd to me to be OK with killing for art but not for something as practical and useful as really good winter clothing.
+junbh2 Some taxidermied animals are well made enough to belong in natural history museums, though. If the sculptor has really studied the animal enough to make its body language and posture accurate, for example.
@@junbh2 some people do also object please don't generalize. The world could still exist without us treating the rest of the planets denizens as disposable resources.
I would love to go to that event it would be like going to the supper bowl to most people. I could care less about the supper bowl and much more about this by far
Most taxidermy animals normally die from natural causes. (It is illegal to shoot lions and zebras) So I doubt that he the case. But, it's still possible those were hunter animals but more unlikely unless a hunter specifically gave it to the taxidermy.
Ren Potato it's definitely not illegal to shoot a lion. It's costs a lot but plenty of rich people still pay to legally do it. I'd say about 75% of the animals in there were shot and trapped by hunters. Why else would there be about a dozen mule deer head mounts lol
I would only get a taxidermy animal if it died naturally and not on purpose just for money. I have a pinned dragonfly and butterfly with one gypsy moth catapillar soaked in alcohol but all of them I found in my backyard and died of natural causes. Killing an animal for the sole purpose of it looking pretty is NOT okay
I bet thats why a lot of people who do this are hunters to start with. After all the old days they killed for the meat and needed to preserve the hides for clothing and what not. Not for shoulder mounts but still. I don't blame you. Since i have no problem hunting i love to learn how to use as much of the animal as i can.
@ Tea Zidic. I would make a guess that you have absolutely no idea about wildlife conservation then. It is often tree-huggers like yourself who have the worst effect on nature, much worse than hunters who actually have a role to play in keeping a balance in nature. If some animals are not hunted, they actually become so destructive to the natural area where they live, that the area is later destroyed by the feeding habits of the animals. That is why for example elephants have to be culled in the Kruger National park, since if they are left to breed uncontrolled, they will later destroy parts of the park to such an extent, that not only they, but other kinds of animals who live in the same area will not have food, and later either move on to parts of the park that has not been eaten to destruction, and destroy them as well, or they will die of starvation, since food is becoming more scarce. I have seen as a youngster what a place looks like if a her of 50 or more elephants have been through there, trees pushed over, trees debarked, stripped of leaves and so on. I have sen herds of 100 and more animals, and what they leave behind looks a bit like a disaster area. Since the trees are destroyed, the food for other game like Kudus is becoming less, and then the food for the smaller animals, like Impala, and other herbivores. This effect filters down to the smallest animals. I do not have to like hunting, and i do not do it myself, but i can and do appreciate the fact that hunting is needed to keep a balance in nature. I am sure that the people who do this kind of art, taxidermy is an art, do know about this, and try to have as little effect as possible on nature, while doing their art.
I tried this once on a deer. lol It turned out so-so,,and it didnt look all that alive. But it didnt look dead either,,lmao. It looked stuffed!!! It is sooo hard to make these animals look alive.Amazing
I thought the title said "worst taxidermy championship" and was prepared for a very different video.
Moose Tradamus sammeeeee
A competition like that would be a carnival of horrors. I love it.
Same
Same
@@pLanetstarBerry I would pay good money to see that
I'm vegetarian and wildlife/nature conservationist and I'm really into vulture culture (people who love to collect remains and taxidermy). You can be an animal lover and enjoy taxidermy as well. You don't have to kill an animal for it. I only work with animals that I have found or that have been given to me and died from a natural death. Taxidermy connects many interests of mine- animals, death and art. They're beautiful and by preserving them, we can keep enjoying the beauty of some of these creatures. So as long as the animal wasn't killed for sport or beauty purposes, I'm all for taxidermy. It doesn't have to involve hunting or killing it.
Hey! You have resources to people who are beningers in vulture culrure?
Hello there! I’m 13 and from Fresno California, and I’m proud to be a fan of taxidermy
I don't normally like taxidermy but this is really nicely done. They look so real.
Really extraordinary... I'm glad I happened across this. As a youth, I spent lots of time in Natural History Museums and became inspired about wildlife from those extremely valuable exhibits. I would so much rather see the animals artistically and faithfully preserved, than simply lost to dust... thank you for sharing this.
I like how at the very end he says "we all come from different cultures" *camera zooms into the one black guy there*
This is the sad true I only see one black guy.
Just like The Office
Holy Hand Grenades ya but for some reason people think the darker you are the more culture u have
What an ignorant comment. You do realize race and culture aren’t the same thing, right?
Sad why must there always be race put into something this is what people love to do no matter what color you are you don't see any females in this video either but some of the best in the world are females also please keep from showing hate in the one last thing that brings me peace
I disliked the bit about mass producing the model for others. The taxidermy loses its uniqueness if its mass produced, i have more of an appreciation for one-offs, fantastic examples of taxidermy that could only have come from one place.
The barnowl at 2:04 is incredible. I want it so bad.
They are all incredible!
Same!!! I want it so bad too!! :C
69th like!
I want to go to one. They all look incredible.
As an artist, I will say..this is beautiful masterpiece.
From what they showed I love them all but that lion was spot on!
The sculpting with real bones underneath is super awesome, the amount of knowledge they have with anatomy is insane.
I'd like to do this one day,
but I can't sculpt a circle to save my life.
Trantor The Troll - That would be a sphere. And technically you can’t sculpt a circle since it’s 2D- the closest you can get is a thin disc.
The brown bear at 5:14 is absolutely stunning.
I could always tell, just from looking at a taxidermy mount, if the mount was made by someone who actually cared about the living animal, and I certainly see it in these. There is so much life in these mounts that I don't get that disgusting retched feeling I get when I see mounts made by people who enjoy hunting more than animals themselves.
Yes, I had the same indescriptible feeling. You put words on it, thank you
They hunt them?! Who the f*ck kills a wolf just so you can pose it’s dead body? I honestly thought they just found dead bodies
@@mimimary16 just in case you didn't know, people hunt animals for FOOD just like many other creatures on earth. taxidermy preserves the beauty of nature so we can remember and admire the animals long after they're gone. it's a great way to use more of the animal and decrease waste. your comment was extremely ignorant.
@@mimimary16 also, if you actually knew anything about taxidermy, you'd know they don't use the whole carcass. it's just the leather with the fur still attached, there are no guts in the finished product. the artists will sculpt a form to put the leather on and it's almost the exact same thing as a leather couch or a fur coat. you need to grow up and educate yourself.
@@mimimary16 Sometimes there are issues with populations or particular individual predators who learn dangerous behaviours that need to be culled. Deer in Scotland for example must be controlled this way as all their natural predators excepting humans have been wiped out. The advantage to deer though is that it’s really tasty.
its like the dead animals sprung back to life, so lovely
Lagarda Lagarda 😣😣😣🙈🙈🙈👎👎👎
Tea Zidic what?
Fran Bartoluci what in this video nice?Looking dead animals..hmm
Tea Zidic "Life after Death". Think about if your pet dog (or other animal) had died and you were very upset about it, and didnt want to let them go. Make them into taxidermy. Life after death.
@@teaivazidic4041 the animals are beautiful. If you don't like it then don't watch it.
I find documentaries oddly relaxing to watch while studying.
The World Championship also looks amazing.
I want to be a taxidermist someday!
It's easy enough to buy a frozen "feeder" mouse/rat from the petstore and watch a video to learn how to stuff it.
Tanya Turtle-I've thought about that just to creap people out. Have you posed funny and while your alive record something funny. Then have someone hook it up to a lazer sensor at the front door so when someone walks in they hear you and see you. I've always thought more of a creepy thing than cool. Thats why i let my beloved pets that die of old age rott in the ground and only preserve things i find in the wild with no emotional attachment. If any of this makes sense. Lol. But yeah i've jokingly thought about that to.
As an artist who is most gifted in sculpture, I see the appeal behind this and see taxidermy in a whole new light of potential.
It looks like a very interesting event. Great piece from the judge at the end there.
Wow, I'm impressed. I'm really impressed! Oh my god this is what taxidermy is? Yeah tottally agree oh my god it's litterally artistic like a animal painter or sculpter with animal stuff.
I'm glad to be an artist, we, humans, can be incredible with our hands and eyes.
Thanks to share it!
Maybe someday I will try it, this totally change the way I saw taxidermy.
I love visiting BassProShop and Cabelas because of the taxidermy I cant imagine visiting a shoe like this
How do you visit a shoe?
+Bowhunter320 I think he ment show
+Bowhunter320 one step at a time...
@@rogere7478 lol, nice one.
I’ve got a real respect for taxidermist. My family on my dads side and me we go deer hunting and my uncle he shot this huge, 8 point buck. It was a beautiful creature, really. So after we all carved it up and stuff, storing the meat all that, we sent in the bust of it and when we got it back my uncle was crushed.
The eyes were green of all things. One of the ears was just missing, its muzzle messed up. My uncle was pissed! The skin was just beyond repair (at least from anyone in Louisiana!) so he just got the skull and horns cleaned up. Such a shame.
Im so stupid I thought that taxidermy was stuffing an animal not all this complicated stuff
Your not the only one who thought that
Try looking up "soft taxidermy" which is exactly that, creating a stuffed animal from a preserved hide.
God this is amazing! This has totally changed my perspective on Taxidermy
Chuck Testa is the champion.
Wow! Amazing talent and passion for the craft! I clicked here by chance and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the video. It is truly inspiring! Thank you for sharing it!
The international wildlife museum here in Tucson az is pretty cool. It's a huge taxidermy zoo. They've got giraffes, elephants, a giant Moa and even a thylacine. They've got all the normal stuff too, but also stuff like snakes, lizards, just things that you might not typically see mounted and preserved. They put sections of fur infront of each animal too so you can see what they'd feel like. Which is really cool because you'd never be able to get close enough to a bengal tiger or wolverine to touch it. And it keeps people from touching the exhibits too lol.
I love this stuff, it's really cool and it takes a lot of talent to make something look as good as it did while the animal was alive.
Such beautiful pieces. I'd love to do taxidermy someday.
I think they are beautiful
Great video.. Thank you :)
My father was a notable taxidermist for quite a few years and taught me several things. He wasnt a great person and he was even less of a great father but he was a very talented artist indeed.
Great video, very interesting
They all look so amazing oh my goodness
Wow now these are amazing
Fascinated....i want to try this so bad..
These are incredible.
Kind of glad I watched this, learned something new. I always thought from growing up that Taxidermy was basically embalmed corpses, which is disgusting and terrifying to think about
those mounts are awesome!!!!!!
That puma pouncing at the ram looks epic
Taking fleeting beauty and making it eternal
How do you get the animal skin and how are you aloud to get the skin
Great vid guys Smile More God Bless Stay Safe 👍
Its beautiful
for everyone concerned: most taxidermists will only work with animals who die of natural causes or who were already dead for meat. they're actually pretty into respecting nature.
Amazing. Wow!
Trabalho maravilhoso!
lynx always look weird when you taxidermy them in my opinion :/
I think lynx are genuinely kind of odd looking animals. Their back legs are so long they look like they're out of proportion to our eyes that are more used to other felines.
hmm never thought of it like that!
GEII2GE yeah, they do look strange when there stuffed, but they look weird when there alive too.
I will one day be there! I’m a taxidermy apprentice
WOW! What a treat!
That starling is cool!
This is very cool I want to be a taxidermist when I’m older 🙂 that’s my dream job
Fascinating
I am actually extremely impressed that guy was only an hr into building the raccoon. Would have taken me like 3 or 4 days if not a week of 8 hrs a day to get to that point.
what's the sung in the background? just curious
Tanya Garcia Darude-Sandstorm
What is the opening song??!!!
I would love to swing by one of these events and sketch out all the animals!
I'm pretty sure that when I have my own house of apartment it'll be full of framed insects and taxidermy. They're just so beautiful, in a sense decomposition is a waste of perfectly good skin
I was going to have my very first pet, which was a cat, taxidermied, but I felt like she would've never slept in peace of I did that. So, I ended up just having her cremated instead, and I keep her ashes in a beautiful oak urn, which I keep in front of a large window with a beautiful view. She LOVED sitting in the sun in front of windows, so it's only fitting.
These are so beautiful
Still a better use a animal skin that fur coats.
...BTW, were any of them Chuck Testa?
Wolf Edmunds Haven't heard that name in years. That meme died long ago.
Why? Fur coats are certainly a lot more useful. I think they have a weird reputation in warmer countries because people wear them that don't need them, but if you spend any time in really cold environments, fur is just way warmer than any synthetic. And why don't people ever seem to freak out in the same way about leather shoes? Not that I object to taxidermy if the animal dies naturally or is killed for meat, but it seems very odd to me to be OK with killing for art but not for something as practical and useful as really good winter clothing.
+junbh2 Some taxidermied animals are well made enough to belong in natural history museums, though. If the sculptor has really studied the animal enough to make its body language and posture accurate, for example.
NOPE. CHUCK TESTA.
@@junbh2 some people do also object please don't generalize.
The world could still exist without us treating the rest of the planets denizens as disposable resources.
super cool
I would love to go to that event it would be like going to the supper bowl to most people. I could care less about the supper bowl and much more about this by far
they look so teal
i meant real
Love from south africa
0:15 - sounds like the voice is just vocal part of the track.
thanks
Your welcome
Most taxidermy animals normally die from natural causes. (It is illegal to shoot lions and zebras) So I doubt that he the case. But, it's still possible those were hunter animals but more unlikely unless a hunter specifically gave it to the taxidermy.
Ren Potato it's definitely not illegal to shoot a lion. It's costs a lot but plenty of rich people still pay to legally do it. I'd say about 75% of the animals in there were shot and trapped by hunters. Why else would there be about a dozen mule deer head mounts lol
lol taxi doesn't mean movement it means arrangement
Then how come chemotaxis means chemical movement isn't that using the same root?
@@Sara3346 different roots have different connotations depending on the word they're being used in
Why we call moving cars that take us places... TAXIS...?
I wonder what would happen if someone did this to an animal but put a robot inside it so the animal could move. That would be fantastic!
Look up the cat drone
Totally misread title as "World Taxonomy Championship" and I was very confused!
John Schmidt, represent!!!!!! Go SD! Haha
I was just thinking of taxidermy and then I come across this, can u tube read my mind?
Interesting
I would only get a taxidermy animal if it died naturally and not on purpose just for money. I have a pinned dragonfly and butterfly with one gypsy moth catapillar soaked in alcohol but all of them I found in my backyard and died of natural causes. Killing an animal for the sole purpose of it looking pretty is NOT okay
I like taxidermy I find it fascinating but I only like it when the animals die naturally I don't Like when the just kill them
So why is it any better to do it from them dying of natural causes
Many places do in fact taxidermy only from donated animals who died from natural causes or by accidental means; an animal hit by a car for example
agreed. Like someone said already, many animals are donated from accidents and natural causes.
Rose Elder you are totally right
I hate taxidermy because I can't deal with dead animals...I love them too much. But I'm an artist so I do admit that it is an art and takes skill.
I bet thats why a lot of people who do this are hunters to start with. After all the old days they killed for the meat and needed to preserve the hides for clothing and what not. Not for shoulder mounts but still. I don't blame you. Since i have no problem hunting i love to learn how to use as much of the animal as i can.
😥😥😣😣😢😢😤😤😤😤This is terrible.disgusting....
CHloE748 i hate all people who killed animals...STOP STOP!
There is a place that does vegan taxidermy, they only use animals that died naturally, or roadkill.
@ Tea Zidic.
I would make a guess that you have absolutely no idea about wildlife conservation then.
It is often tree-huggers like yourself who have the worst effect on nature, much worse than hunters who actually have a role to play in keeping a balance in nature.
If some animals are not hunted, they actually become so destructive to the natural area where they live, that the area is later destroyed by the feeding habits of the animals. That is why for example elephants have to be culled in the Kruger National park, since if they are left to breed uncontrolled, they will later destroy parts of the park to such an extent, that not only they, but other kinds of animals who live in the same area will not have food, and later either move on to parts of the park that has not been eaten to destruction, and destroy them as well, or they will die of starvation, since food is becoming more scarce. I have seen as a youngster what a place looks like if a her of 50 or more elephants have been through there, trees pushed over, trees debarked, stripped of leaves and so on. I have sen herds of 100 and more animals, and what they leave behind looks a bit like a disaster area. Since the trees are destroyed, the food for other game like Kudus is becoming less, and then the food for the smaller animals, like Impala, and other herbivores. This effect filters down to the smallest animals.
I do not have to like hunting, and i do not do it myself, but i can and do appreciate the fact that hunting is needed to keep a balance in nature. I am sure that the people who do this kind of art, taxidermy is an art, do know about this, and try to have as little effect as possible on nature, while doing their art.
WOW I love the cougar..
Wow
What is that fish at the 5:00 mark?
If your still wondering it’s a wolf eel
where Are the dead animals from?
All around the world.
Buetiful 👌👏👍👏👏👏👏
this is so cool
4:36 looked like a real live hunt!
4:53 THE DOG IN THE BACKGROUND
I half expected them to move (the animals)
I tried this once on a deer. lol It turned out so-so,,and it didnt look all that alive. But it didnt look dead either,,lmao. It looked stuffed!!! It is sooo hard to make these animals look alive.Amazing
wow
Some of these are huge. You need a huge house or a room devoted just for piece.
Haw INSPIRING I love to do taxidermy sculpting and putting together skeletons are my faverot
5:25 Is that a dog? Because I've never seen a wolf with that coat color.
Frida - Probably coyote or a fox with mutated coat ❤️
looks like a new guinea singing dog.
So beautiful U wish I would have one
I want the lyncs
No animals were harmed in the making
Was that Michael Alm the woodworker. Young one
H20 delirious "Teddy bear!!" Me OMG is a bear run! 5:10
yeah but those young animals, how were they harvested....
Dude I can smell this video 😂(amazing work tho)
Taxidermy don't smell.
I don't see why this shouldn't be in my recommended, but I also don't see why.
Can u make lampshades?