When you’ve been to a successful hunting foray, the spoils of war can either replenish your appetite or be immortalized on a mount.
It could be a reminder or congratulatory token of your hard work in the woods.
Of course, there are the regular suspects in the mounting business, the furry beasts such as the deer or bear. They resonate well with visitors and compliment your interior décor.
The ruggedness of the woods is captured perfectly in a shoulder mount. But, what about ducks? Can you taxidermy a duck?
Yes, the answer is that you can taxidermy a host of other animals, including crocodiles and tigers. But we don’t imagine you hunting some fiery carnivores any time soon.
However, shooting down some waterfowls in the season could be one of your passions. What better way to crown your souvenir than through a duck mount?
In the following sections, we’ll look into how to duck mountings are done. But first, let’s see what taxidermy is all about and why you should be interested.
What Is Taxidermy?
When you come into contact with the skins and feathers, they seem lifelike with a bizarrely sharped eye look.
A museum filled with realistic wild animals may not be the best setting for a dreamy affair, perhaps a chilling nightmare.
If we opened up this process of preservation, it appears as some gory, horrifying stuff. You see, taxidermy uses real-life hide to create lifelike figures that have an uncanny resemblance to the real thing.
Taxidermy is the procedure of preserving an animal’s body through mounting over a form or stuffing. Taxidermy is both an art and science. As it is also called, mounting can be traced back to England, a period after leather’s demand had increased exponentially.
New species discovery meant that they had to be preserved. Famous scientists such as Charles Darwin and James cook used this method to maintain species they discovered
With the demand for leather in footwear, straps, and horse saddles, tanning became a critical element of the production process. In the scientific world, a scientific revolution was evolving.
If you imagine that the current duck preservation is gory, the original taxidermy was more crude and straightforward. They would extract the animal guts, tan the leather, and puff them up with stubble or stuffing for show.
One of the shortcomings was that the nostrils, eyes, and tongue would decay over time. Subsequent mounting changed for the better with the unearthing of arsenic.
Until the twentieth century, this form of preservation remained pretty much the same until the seventies when skin mountings on mannequins or moldings replaced stuffing.
You may be wondering whether it’s possible to taxidermy a waterfowl or if you like a duck. The fact is that you can mount a duck through the same procedure you would do to any other animal.
This brings us to the next question: can you taxidermy a duck?
Can You Taxidermy A Duck?
Just like conventional taxidermy, waterfowl mounting begins with unraveling the skin.
The process starts by extracting the real flesh and skeletons from the waterfowl. However, the feet and claw should be left in place because of the mounting’s vital role.
Most waterfowls tend to have excess fat lining along the inner skin. The extra fat should be extracted to make sure only the fur and feathers are left. The skin and feathers are then immersed and cleaned in lukewarm water.
You can use your regular detergents to make sure the feathers and skin are clean and extract any present grease. When they are clean, they are dried using a hair dryer and a piece of cloth.
Since not all dampness is removed through this procedure, it is dried through salting. Next, the waterfowl are turned inside out while the head opening is packed with clay. The molding is sculpted using synthetic foam.
The molding will contain the neck and the head. The wings and limbs are connected through the help of wires using an adhesive.
In short, it is possible to preserve your waterfowl after hunting. You can choose between DIY or dropping it at the taxidermist. In the next section, we’ll look at a step by step process of DIY duck taxidermy.
Can You Do DIY Taxidermy On A Duck?
So far, we’ve seen DIY mounting is possible; however, the process is still intricate and deserves more hours to perfect.
THINGS YOU NEED TO DO A DIY WATERFOWL TAXIDERMY
- Of course, a duck
- Stuffing
- Wires
- Cardboard box
- Synthetic eyes
- Wire cutters
- Glue
- Thread and needle
- Borax
- Paint
STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO DIY DUCK TAXIDERMY
The first step is to turn over the bird on your work starting. Remember to be careful with the feathers because you’ll need them later. The duck should face up as you prepare for the cutting process.
Check out the skin around the breast stone area to begin the cutting process. Here is where it gets tricky— you need to cut carefully to avoid hitting the guts. Cut a straight line around the chest section.
Next, you need to detach the meat from the skin meticulously. Move on to the neck area and do some cutting there. The cuts should hit the neck bone (use the wire cutter to run through the bones)
This where it gets bloody and messy (no pun intended), and you need to clean all that blood in your sink. The sight of blood usually makes some people sick.
Repeat the process, detach the skin from the meat, and cut the bones using a wire cutter. Separate the skin around the wings and the back from the meat. Note as you continue with the skin separation, in the end, remember to be careful not to tear the fragile section.
The skin is thinner and fragile around this section. If more blood seems ooze, you can clean your bird again.
The legs are cut off around the knee joint. Cut the tail off; however, you need to be careful with the bottom. Ideally, the cut should not be too low or too high. If it’s too high, you may hit the guts, and if it’s too low, the tail feather might drop off.
Again, you may not get it right in your first trial but do subsequent ones as you practice more.
The next step is the stuffing process. The idea is to create a compress stuffing that’s the same size as the duck’s body. You’ll use a thread to wrap the stuffing until it is the same size as your desired body.
Once done, insert some wires where the legs were in the original waterfowl body. Next, you have to remove any remaining flesh attached to the skin. You do this carefully as well.
Usually, it’s relatively easy to pull the remaining flesh, but you can use a knife where it feels stuck. Also, remember to remove the head, tongue, and windpipe. If the meat remains, it will rot over time.
Now you can begin the boraxination process. Apply the borax on all the fleshy part of the skin. You can also fill the head with clay to make it look natural.
The neck is designed from the wires, and it should run a similar size as the original one. Similarly, the legs and wings will be attached using wires.
Insert the stuffing you created earlier on into the body and ensure your body appears as the original. It is an intricate process that is followed by the modeling process using the pins.
You shouldn’t worry about it if it doesn’t look like what you see elsewhere. It takes time; you’ll get there eventually.
How Much Does A Taxidermist Cost?
From the above guide, it’s clear that the process isn’t straightforward. It needs some level of experience to handle correctly.
When you hire a taxidermist, look for a waterfowl specialist.
While a deer mount may be superbly done, he might not be the best choice for a duck mounting. On average, you will spend a minimum of $250 on duck taxidermy. However, larger waterfowls such as geese may cost you more than $600.
These prices are for the standard mountings. If you want some technical presentations or additions, you may cough up more dollars.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As we have seen through taxidermy history, you can mount almost all animals, especially those with substantially solid skin. If you wish to have one of your ducks from a hunting spree mounted, all you need to do is prepare it for the taxidermist.
If you have enough time on your hands, you can give the DIY a try. Of course, you may never get it right in the first trial. With more practice, you might be doing mountings for your friends too.
Taxidermy is a relevant form of art and science that we can utilize to preserve animals for longer. Moreover, you can add to your interior design by getting a duck mount hanging on a wall.
Get yourself a duck mount or create one using the simple steps discussed above.
You Might Also Read: Glossary Of Waterfowl Hunting Terms
