Taxidermy facts for kids

Taxidermist in South Africa.

A taxidermied bobcat

Taxidermy (which comes from the Greek word for "the arrangement of skin") is act of taking the skin of an animals and preserving it, by putting it on a fake body. If you perform taxidermy, you taxiderm. Taxidermed animals can be mounted and put on display, sometimes in a museum or a home. People who taxidermy animals are called taxidermists. Many hunters and fishermen taxidermine the animals they catch and kill for trophies. Ones that are on display in museums are used to make dioramas and for educational purposes. Some people taxiderm their pets and other street animals.

Images for kids

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  Wilmer W. Tanner with a mounted tiger at the Brigham Young University Life Sciences Museum

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  Taxidermied skin of Lolong, coined as the largest crocodile in captivity by Guinness World Records, at Philippine National Museum

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  Primate and pachyderm taxidermy at the Rahmat International Wildlife Museum & Gallery, Medan, Sumatra, Indonesia

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  Theodore Roosevelt's taxidermy kit, private collection

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  Walter Potter's Rabbit School, 1930s

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  other moose and calf diorama, Manitoba Museum

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  Two examples of traditional skin-mounts, a Lion and Blue Wildebeest from Namibia

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  Example of dermestid beetle damage to a freeze-dried taxidermy mount of a rattlesnake

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  Reproduction mount of a rhinoceros made of fiberglass

See also

In Spanish: Taxidermia para niños