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JAMES + MAREANIE

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so it was Mermay, apparently! here’s a Jellyboy

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Victorian-era room at the Grand Rapids public museum!

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Found this super fresh roadkill in the Karoo, poor chap. Can anyone ID? We thought it could be an Ardwolf!?

We briefly upset a feeding goshawk to get this photo, but he came back as we drove off. #roadkill #southafrica #ardwolf #conservation #overland #citizenscience

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Pointy beak brigade - k.ingfisher, great spotted w.oodpecker, n.uthatch, green w.oodpecker. These birds sadly died and are used for training courses and teaching.

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Quiet

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Birds

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Got this African Jacana drying. Unlike the skin I posted before, the feather on this specimen was tattered. I like to work on my worst specimens first and then perfect my technique with the better ones. #taxidermy #africanjacana #ornithology #birds #exoticbirds #naturalhistory #museum #cabinetofcuriosities #sculpture #art #allismarkham #preytaxidermy

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Diaphonized stingray fetus

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young man leave that dead bird alone young man put back his feathers and bones

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http://www.taxidermy.net/forum/index.php/topic,382316.0.html

Lions by Daniel M.

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Button buck courtesy of my friend’s mom!

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little jumping spider hitching a ride on a beetle

image source 

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Gray fox :D!!!! My friend texted me about him and she was so proud of herself for finding him on the way back to campus lol. I’m gonna let him freeze over for about a month or so before getting to work on him c:

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i have this image in my art ref folder; it’s mummies but it might give you an idea of how to go about it :3 

Vultures to the rescue!

Quick! Can any vulture culture blogs help me with some references for an illustration? I’m trying to draw a rotting rat for a hypothetical cover of Stephen King’s 1922. Feel free to reblog this and add or message me!

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Oryx gemsbok

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that deer you just posted is something called a cactus buck! basically, the buck has either accidentally gotten castrated (barbed wire fences can sometimes do this) or was a hermaphroditic at birth, and due to low testosterone production, does not shed his velvet and develops these thick, multi-pronged antlers that have tons of velvet (normal bucks tend to drop velvet due to increased testosterone). It's a super interesting mutation and some crazy antlers are a result of it

this is so interesting i had no idea !! apparently deer with this condition sometimes keep herds but dont engage in headbutting or other territorial displays, and just kinda hang out with their antlers all year

so theres the one from the video

but then also stuff like

(this ones with restored fake velvet )

turns out not all deer with antlers like these are true cactus bucks though - injuries and other hormone imbalances can also cause similar growths ( and also i guess a lot of people breed specifically for huge antler mutations in whitetail deer )