At the World Taxidermy and Fish Carving Competition

(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- On a stormy day in Springfield, Mo., the Expo Center was full of menacing bears, jumping lions, flying birds, and swimming fish, all remaining pretty still as they got their hair blow-dried, feathers tweaked, or scales retouched.

Every other year since 1983, taxidermists from all over the world gather for the World Taxidermy and Fish Carving Championships. Since the 1990s, it has been organized by Larry Blomquist, owner and publisher of the taxidermy magazine Breakthrough.

“You need a lot of skills to be a good taxidermist,” he says, “a good knowledge of anatomy, habitat, sculpting, sewing, painting, and have a very creative mindset to come up with the piece to look alive and tell a story. A good taxidermist is an artist.”

About 30 judges, two for each category ranging from Large Mammals to Reptiles, walk among the entries. In front of a very stoic rabbit being attacked by a lynx, a judge comments: “He looks like he is getting a back-scratch. This is not realistic.”

“A good piece needs to display emotion; this is what makes it stands out,” says Wendy Christensen, who has been a judge for 25 years. “But it also needs to be anatomically correct.” To check accuracy, judges run their fingers through fur, inspect teeth with a flashlight, and compare pieces with reference photos.

A winning entry can take, on average, 150 hours to be completed and eventually sell for $10,000 to $20,000.

This year the Best of Show did not have fur or feathers. For the first time in the championship’s history, the top prize was awarded to a large, majestic fish called a muskellunge—better known as a “muskie”—created by Tim Gorenchan from Escanaba, Mich.

Next door to the competition is one of the largest trade shows in the taxidermy industry. Vendors populating 166 booths sell glass eyes and such other artificial parts as noses, jaws, and reproduction turkey heads, or display habitat, such as fake rocks and tree branches.

Allis Markham, a taxidermist based in Los Angeles, has been giving classes for several years in the hope of making taxidermy more popular in urban areas and among women. She says 95% of her students are women. One of her former students, Lauren Crist, a full-time animator for Disney, won first place with her blue jay this year.

The competition also includes a category for newcomers no older than 14.

“My daughter is only 7,” says Ashley Barrett, a four-time contestant who won this year’s Best in World for his mountain lion. “But she is already interested in what I am doing. We might try to work on a piece together this summer—maybe a deer head.”

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Silvia Killingsworth at skillingswo2@bloomberg.net

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