I receive many questions on how an animal is preserved.  So on one of my latest deer mounts, I took pictures of the steps on how it is done. 

The word “Taxidermy” broken down means Taxi=moving and Dermy=skin.  Essentially moving skin. 

The first step is the animal is brought in to the taxidermist.  Usually the head and antlers are still in the cape.  The first step is to remove the head from the cape so you are left with a raw deerskin.  Most of the meat and fat are removed with normal skinning. 

The eyelids, nose and ears are then split, meaning they are thinned down so the salt can penetrate and kill the bacteria. The ears are basically inverted from the cartilage so salt can penetrate.  Salting does two things, it kills all living bacteria so the skin does not rot and it shrinks the skin, removing all the moisture and locking the hair follicles so the hair doesn’t fall out. 

The antlers are then cut from the skull and salt, or other preserving agent, is applied  to kill the bacteria. 

The skin usually sets on a salting rack for up to 48 hours, then removed and left alone to air dry. 

 After the skin has dried to almost a cardboard feel it is ready to be tanned or sent of to a commercial tannery.  I use one of the best tanneries to preserve the skin forever. 

I receive the skin back from the tannery usually 2 months later and the form and skin can be prepared for the mounting process. 

Here is a basic form for a shoulder-mounted deer.  It is made of a very sturdy polyurethane foam.  It can be sanded cut and altered to fit all skins.  They are usually ordered to fit a certain species for size and pose.  The antlers are then cut and placed onto the form and screwed in as the photo shows above. 

  The skin is then thinned down even more with a skife knife and all holes are sewn with a basic needle and thread. 

  The eyes are then sculpted using a self-drying clay or some taxidermists use paper mache.  The eyes are glass and have very good detail mirroring those of the animal being mounted.  I cut the nose off from the form, as you can see in the above photo, and carve in the nasal passage and adding a septum to make the animal appear real and alive.  I learned this process from a very respected Master Taxidermist.

The form is then inverted and hide paste is applied to the form.  This hide paste has additives that will keep all moths and bugs from getting in the hide and eating it.  It has a slow set to allow the taxidermist to move the skin around on the form during the mounting process. 

The skin is then placed onto the manikin and adjusted to get it in the vicinity of where it needs to be.  The eyes are then tucked into the clay, the ears are set to the desire position, and the cape is then sewn down the back. 

Pins are inserted, so as the cape begins to dry, it does not pull from where it has been set.  Once the hide-paste has dried the pins are removed. The mount usually takes about two weeks to dry before the sculpting and airbrushing process should begin to allow the skin to fully dry. The nose and eyes are then sculpted with a clay-type epoxy and then airbrushed to give that life-like color back to the skin. 

And that is the basic procedure for mounting an animal.