It’s funny how you can not realise that taxidermy involves de-gutting animals until you’re faced with a defrosted squirrel. Holding a scalpel with which to make an incision from collar bone to certainly turns your stomach.
It’s almost as though they were still alive…
My sister, Rosie, and I were at London Taxidermy Academy in Borough on a Saturday morning, excited and feeling rather sick. There were three others – two also doing squirrels and another doing a bird.
Lee starts the session by explaining a bit about what’s going to happen over the weekend. There’s little of the history behind it (apparently the earliest known taxidermy pieces are from the 16th century but really became popular in the 18th & 19th century) and its straight into the details.
(Lee, by the way, is lovely. He’s patient, encouraging and has many interesting stories to tell about his experience with taxidermy. He’s also got another business that creates high end fashion pieces).
Interestingly enough, in Taxidermy:
- It is mainly women who take these classes.
- There is a surprising amount of vegetarians and vegans.
- So far, no one’s been sick or fainted in any of the London Taxidermy Academy classes. Will you be the first?
- The youngest attendee was a lad of 12 who didn’t really like the skinning part, but loved the 2nd day.
- The animals don’t, as I previously thought, die of ‘natural causes’ (I had thought it was strange that enough animals could be ‘found’ to run the sessions). Instead, they are often killed by specialists who have been asked to eradicate them from estates. These specialists then keep the victims of their assassination and sell them on to taxidermy businesses and individuals. They often use trained hawks to kill their prey, leaving them remarkably unblemished (aside from a crushed skull or broken leg here and there).
- You don’t necessarily ‘gut’ the animal, but remove it as a whole. So hopefully no contact with slimy intestines.
- There’s little blood – maybe a little around its face, but due to it being frozen it’s had time to ‘settle’.
How to taxidermy a squirrel in pictures.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Lay Mr Squirrel on his back and gently make an incision down his front from collarbone to just before the tail. Open the edges and gently scrape away at the membrane on the skin to separate the flesh from it.
Do this around the whole of the bottom part of the animal. When you get to the legs feel for the hip socket and separate it from the bone. Using clippers, cut through the flesh and bone to separate this section from the rest of the body. It should still be attached to the feet. Remove the membrane around the arms and similarly to the legs, cut off the arms at the shoulder.
Work gently around the head (the skin is much thinner here) gently removing the ears and eye slits. When you get to the nose area, cut through the top of the skull and then the lower jaw using clippers. This should detach the flesh from the skin. Scrape as much flesh as you can from the leg and arm bones. Try and scrape as much remaining membrane from the skin using a blunt craft knife as you can. Apply a sprinkle of Borax (drying agent) to the bones, especially around any flesh left over and brush a thin layer of tanning oil to the skin. Leave overnight.
Make sure you sprinkle Borax into the nose area also.
The next day, wash your squirrel skin in shallow water with a couple of drops of washing up liquid. Scrub the inside of the skin and the bones gently with a toothbrush.
Change the water and wash the fur very gently. Wet fur is more delicate and so easily comes off. You don’t want any bald patches. On a cool heat hair dryer the fur. Backcomb gently when the fur is a little more dry.
Make a squirrel ‘body’ out of wood wool, wire and thread. Use the flesh that you cut out (that contains the lungs, guts etc) to measure against this. It doesn’t have to be perfect and best to make it smaller as you can pad it out later.
Hold the eyes in place on the head area and wrap the head in place.
Wire and stuff the legs before sewing up, back-stuffing with cotton wool as you go.
Continue stuffing up the body.
Start positioning the body how you want. And stuff the head and cheeks through the ears and mouth. This is Lee fixing my wonky squirrel face.
And you are done! Your squirrel friend is ready. Give him a few days to dry out properly (you can position him until then).
I won’t lie. Taxidermy is traumatic, pungent, brutal, delicate and I loved and hated it. At one point I thought I must be mental. At other times I totally forgot that I was working on a dead animal. I hated the fact my squirrel had a giant willy and maggot eggs on part of his skin. I was sad that this squirrel was cut down in his prime (he looked like he enjoyed life). I got annoyed with myself for being squeamish and taking so long to do everything. I was fascinated by the process and grumpy that I’d made my squirrel rather too chunky but hadn’t filled out his legs enough.
Oh, and I called him Horace.
If you’re thinking of taking a class, here are my tips for taxidermy
- Don’t eat before you attend a session. This goes for heavy drinking sessions the night before too.
- Make sure you have strong smelling hand sanitizer for after the session – dead squirrel stinks. Even though you’ll be wearing gloves, they’ll still smell funny.
- Don’t wear anything too nice. Most likely you’ll drop bits of flesh and membrane on your clothes.
- Have a tissue near by – you may get the urge to sneeze or scratch your nose and it’s not fun walking into normality with dried squirrel gore on your face.
- Take a bottle of water. Taxidermy is thirsty work.
London Taxidermy Academy Details
Rosie and I did the weekend squirrel class.
How much? £200. That’s £100 a day. And well worth it.
Why do this? It’s as stomach-churning as Alton Towers without the long queues.
Where is it? A short walk from London Bridge or Borough
Email: taxidermylondon@mail.com
Website: www.londontaxidermyacademy.com
*If you spill the guts, then you’ve actually done something wrong. Or you don’t know your own strength with a scalpel.
** These are just a guideline only. Please don’t kill the local friendly rabbit and have a go at home in your kitchen. Your housemates will disown you.
Glad I finished my lunch before looking at this. How do you find these places???
Not that I want to go!
It was actually my sister who wanted to go – I was an unwilling participant! But I’m so glad I went. You should try it…
Hello,
Enjoyed reading your blog, I’ve signed up for one of the classes, I’ll be sure to follow up on your tips! Can I ask how long you waited for a confirmation reply after you applied? I’ve been waiting a few days and have not heard from them yet……
Thanks
Diana
Hi Diana, I must say the communications were a little slow. I think we phoned up to make sure that we had definitely got a place and that it was definitely one. When are you going? You’ll love it! Once you’re there, it’s great.
Well I applied on Sunday or Monday, not sure when I’ll be going. Thanks I hope I enjoy it! Do you have the contact number? I couldn’t seem to find it on the website..
Do you know the address for where you went for this workshop? I’m trying desperately to find out where they actually are other than just London bridge. Someone please help!! Thanks
Hi Rachel,
We wondered that too – once you’ve got confirmation you should receive an email with all the details of the place on. I originally had it on this post but they removed it as they didn’t want any crazy animal rights people turning up.
If you want, DM me on Twitter @wabbitpie and I’ll send you the address. Good luck!
Hi Eliza,
Great blog! Like Rachel, I am trying to get in touch with the London Taxidermy Academy but am getting no response to my email enquiry. I would be so grateful if you could possibly share a contact number or address with me, as email doesn’t seem to be getting me anywhere! My email address is frowithabow@hotmail.co.uk
Many thanks,
Ella
Eww, were you really eating chocolate fingers though?