Creating & Mounting From

Field Carcass Patterns

by Dave Luke

COLLECTING REFERENCE IS THE VERY NATURE OF TAXIDERMY. ALL of us, from the hobbyist to the professional taxidermist, collect reference. Most of our reference is in the form of pictures of live animals, however, one of the best sources of information can be collected from skinning procedures. By simply creating traced pictures of the anatomy of specimens after skinning, we can create a wonderfully useful library of body sizes and shapes.

Typically, especially in foreign countries, it is necessary to skin collected birds. This is usually due to lack of freezer space for the return trip home, or birds may have to be cleaned and salted. To help in the final assembly and mounting of these collected species, it aids a taxidermist to make quick drawings or copies of the removed carcass. This is easily accomplished by making two traced drawings of the skinned bird, one, a ventral view, and two, a side view. It helps to label the drawings, and to add important information, such as fresh skin colors of bill and feet, eye color, eye size, etc. When making the drawings, any paper or pen will do, however, I tend to carry a small roll of freezer paper and a grease pencil to make the task easier...

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