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Elderly Black Bear - Skull

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An aged American Black Bear skull that I purchased recently. His skull has become thick and textured with age. I need to get some pictures of him side-by-side with my juvenile American Black Bear skull for comparison. For a photo of my younger bear skull on his own, please see here: [link]

Skull purchased at the Feast of the Hunter's Moon in Lafayette, IN



Disclaimer: I did not kill this animal. If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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White-Tailed Deer Leg

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Right hind leg of a white-tailed deer displayed on a kit fox pelt. Yes, it's weird, I know. At the same time, it is an excellent reference for drawing hoofed animals and... it only cost me $1.50. Doesn't get much better than that.

I'm not really sure how this was preserved (it has the original bone in it still and everything) but it's pretty danged cool and the hoof looks to have been glossed with something to give it that nice shiny look. Also, that white area near the top of the leg that can be seen in the first picture is a metatarsal gland. I've read about them, seen them in pictures, but it's something else entirely when I'm able to see it up close and personal like this.

Purchased at the Feast of the Hunter's Moon in Lafayette, IN


Disclaimer: I did not kill this animal and disagree with the killing of animals for sport or fashion. If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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BlackBacked Jackal - Full Pelt

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My new African Black-backed jackal pelt which is also known as the Silver-backed jackal. He is a full pelt with his paws and claws.

Pelt from a taxidermist on eBay


Disclaimer: I did not kill this animal! If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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Feetsies - Fox And Serval

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A close up of my serval and red fox vixen's hind paws and fluffy tails. They are lying across my alpaca pelt.

Serval from The Corner Shoppe antique store
Red fox from a taxidermist
Alpaca from an eBay seller who purchased it in Lima, Peru


Disclaimer: I did not kill these animals. If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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Serval Stretch

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My serval pelt stretched out comfortably across my alpaca pelt. Easily, my serval is my most photogenic pelt and the easiest to position into cute poses.

Serval from The Corner Shoppe antique store
Alpaca from an eBay seller who purchased it in Lima, Peru


Disclaimer: I did not kill either of these animals and disagree with the killing of animals for sport or fashion. If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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Serval Face: Before And After

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These are the before and after pictures of my serval pelt's face. When I got it, the pelt was split into a rug cut up to its lower neck but everything above that was uncut which was cool since that had kept the chin intact, however, this resulted in an extremely odd shaped face and head.

I carefully cut along the underside of the neck to the end of the chin and, after testing a small piece of the hide elsewhere for dry rot, soaked the head and ears in a bowl of water for a couple hours to get it all softened up. I was then able to gently stretch the face into something more presentable as well as give the same treatment to the ears.

This was going along pretty well until I realized that the skin had separated from the ear cartilage in all areas save for where some "genius" had glued it. The glue probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but in the pelt's current state and with me trying to restore it to something presentable, the glue made the job rather hellish and ended up adding more damage to the ears.

After removing much of the glue and putting in several hours of intensive care and reshaping, I am now very happy with the outcome.

And just as an FYI, please don't ever use standard glue while repairing a taxidermy piece. This will spell doom for your critter down the road. Instead, use rubber cement. You can get it at the craft store and it's easy to use and has given me great results.

Also, after soaking the head in water, I applied some taxidermist's leather oil to the skin that I had gotten wet and gently worked it as it softened so that it would help prevent it from drying out and becoming brittle.

The full pelt can be seen here: [link]


"Before" photo taken by The Corner Shoppe antique store.

"After" photo taken by me.


Disclaimer: I did not kill this animal and disagree with the killing of animals for sport or fashion. If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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Wolf Paws - Close Up

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A close up shot of the front paws and claws on my arctic wolf pelt.

Size comparison: [link]


Wolf from a taxidermist

Disclaimer: I did not kill this animal and disagree with the killing of animals for sport or fashion. If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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Fairy Flower

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Does this not look like a little petal fairy? It was so cute I had to have a picture of it. We've had this plant hanging out on our porch all summer and I thought the flowers were pretty but I guess I never looked at them that closely.

Then in late October I went out the front door one morning and was faced with a single flower left on the plant and probably only still there because the extremely cold air has been preserving it. Leave it to the last flower to be the one with the most personality. I was waiting for it to flutter away or something as I was staring at it.

Not sure of species, some sort of ornamental flowering plant in a hanging basket. Man, for as much as I know about animals, I know next to nothing when it comes to plants and flowers. :XD:

Edit: It's a fuschia flower. Thanks, ~Featherologist! :D
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Fox Squirrel Pelt - Corey

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This is Corey (or McCormick), my beautiful new fox squirrel pelt. :love: He was found as roadkill and skinned and tanned by me. I skinned him with all of his paws and claws intact which gives him so much more personality (just look at that pose in this picture! :D) than my other two tanned squirrel pelts who are sadly lacking their feetses. :(

A big thank you goes out to ~lirimakat whose patience with my bizarre interests and continued antics made Corey's "second life" possible. :)

More pictures of Corey will be posted once I've made a couple small repairs to his tail. :aww:

For paw size comparison, see here: [link]


Fox squirrel found as roadkill and preserved by me
Coyote pelt from a taxidermist


Disclaimer: I did not kill this animal! If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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Junco Bird Preservation

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This is a male Slate-colored Junco which is a type of Dark-eyed Junco. It was found already dead outside a store beneath one of their large front windows. The very tip of the lower part of the beak has been chipped to to his impact with the glass.

These are a few pictures of the process I go through to preserve birds. Usually, I just take off the wings and pour some Borax over them but I was inspired by my pheasant pelt I bought a little while back and wanted to see if I could do a bird pelt too.

The first picture is the Junco by my skinning tool of choice for something this small, an X-Acto knife.

The second picture is after I cut down the length of the belly, and around the legs. I have taken the skin and wings and pinned it out in the position I want it to dry in (the bird's skull has been left within the head since I want my possible pelt to have a beak). The tail separated from the body during the skinning process because of the delicate nature of the skin. It too has been fanned out in a pose that shows off the flashy white side feathers of the Junco and will be reattached later on.

And the last picture shows how much Borax I used and what areas I like to cover.

Any questions, feel free to ask. :)


Disclaimer: I did not kill this animal! If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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Coyote - Anatomy Study

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This is the coyote that was found as roadkill a couple nights ago. I thought it'd be an interesting (albeit rather graphic ^^;) comparison of what the animal's muscular structure looks like beneath the fur.

Her chin looks funny in the lower picture since it still has the skin and fur left on it since I'll be preparing the pelt as a rug cut (split) rather than a case skinned pelt.

And yes, those are leaves and bits of grass stuck all over her poor body. Yes, they really bothered me. And after five hours of sitting out on the cold, hard ground, no, I didn't sit down and pick all the little annoying leaves and shreds of grass off from her before I took the picture. I'm sorry, girl. x.x

A picture of the skinning process can be seen here: [link]


Disclaimer: I did not kill this animal! It was found already dead on the side of the road where it would have simply rotted away to nothing. If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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New Coyote

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This is the coyote found as roadkill a couple nights ago. Before I started the task of skinning her out (which took a lengthy five hours x.x), I grabbed some pictures of her fluffy adorableness.

She has thick, beautiful winter fur and really gorgeous colors. :love:

Here are a couple WIP pictures but be warned as they contain graphic content:

[link]

[link]


Disclaimer: I did not kill this animal! It was found already dead on the side of the road where it would have simply rotted away to nothing. If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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Coyote Pickling Tub

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This is my coyote skin soaking in her pickle bath of Rittel's Saftee-Acid. She's was in for about four days when this picture was taken. She was then taken out for fleshing (which took three hours! x.x) before being returned to the pickle so it soak into the newly exposed layers of skin.

Tomorrow, I get to take her out and apply the tan!

Additional pictures of her can be found in my scrapbook and gallery.


Disclaimer: I did not kill this animal! It was found already dead on the side of the road where it would have simply rotted away to nothing. If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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Peacock Dreams

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Just a quick shot of my wolf candle holder and my beautiful peacock feather. The light was coming in just right and backlighting the candleholder's glass eyes. I really liked the crystal blue of the wolf eyes alongside the greeny blues of the feather and wanted to capture it. :heart:

Wolf candleholder from Windstone Editions
Peacock feather was a gift that was purchased for me by a friend from an outdoor market
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Squirrel Pelts - Grey And Fox

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Two of my squirrel pelts. Viktor is the fox squirrel and Mischa is the grey squirrel, both are male.

Both were purchased at a covered bridge festival


Disclaimer: I did not kill either of these animals! If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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Eastern Chipmunk Jaw

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The lower mandible from my Eastern chipmunk skull. This thing is tiny! It only measures about one inch long.

It was the victim of a cat attack and was later cleaned and preserved by me


Disclaimer: I did not kill this animal! If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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Eastern Chipmunk Skull

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Skull from an Eastern chipmunk. From tip of nose to back of skull, it only measures about an inch and a half long.

It was the victim of a cat attack and was later cleaned and preserved by me


Disclaimer: I did not kill this animal! If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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Squirrel And Chipmunk Skulls

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Skull comparison of a fox squirrel and an Eastern chipmunk. The chipmunk skull measures just over an inch and a half long.

The furs in the background are from a chipmunk (same specimen as the skull) and a fox squirrel (different specimen).

Fox squirrel skull from an animal found dead in a tree and cleaned and preserved by me
Fox squirrel pelt from a covered bridge festival
Chipmunk skull and pelt was the victim of a cat and cleaned, skinned, tanned, and preserved by me


Disclaimer: I did not kill these animals! If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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Kangaroo Pelt

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Kangaroo pelt with tail.

Pelt from eBay


Disclaimer: I did not kill this animal. If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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Fur - Wolf

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A close up of the fur on my wolf pelt. This is a shot of the long fur on his neck. The guard hairs on his shoulder patch measure six inches in length. I love the slightly purple tint that his undercoat has. :love:

Wolf from a taxidermist


Disclaimer: I did not kill this animal and disagree with the killing of animals for sport or fashion. If you do not like what you see, don't look at it! Also, don't bother wasting your time leaving rude or pointless comments here, they will be ignored.
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