More images from Curious Expeditions, this time from the Naturhistorisches Museum in Bern, Switzerland. 

Part of the Museum of the University of Florence, the Specola Museum was opened to the public in 1775, and it is the oldest scientific museum in Europe. It holds the largest collection of anatomical waxworks in the world, manufactured between 1770 and 1850 and over 3,500,000 animals, of which only 5,000 are in view to the public.Check out the Specola's website here + 

Images are from Curious Expeditions' Flickr site [see here +].  Have I already pointed you towards their website?  You should go: www.curiousexpeditions.org

Herman the Bull was the first genetically modified mammal in the world. He spent his old age in a stable in the grounds of Naturalis, the National Museum of Natural History in Leiden, Holland.  He died on April 2nd 2004 at the vast old age of 13 years - one of the longest lived bulls to ever grace the Netherlands.  After Herman died, he was - of course - stuffed.   He will be on permanent display as part of the museum's Research in Progress exhibition. 

The museum feels it necessary to defend their choice of stuffing and displaying Herman.  On their website, they post the following discussion:

Naturalis, being the national natural history museum of the Netherlands, is the best place for information on biodiversity. Thousands of animal species, from insects to mammals, are kept in the Naturalis collection tower, which is the national natural history archive. Herman the Bull represents the start of a new era in the way Man deals with nature. Herman is an icon of scientific progress and the subsequent public discussion of these issues. Information and public discussion remain important. And that is the symbolic value of having Herman the Bull in Naturalis.

Read more about Herman here +

Generally speaking, I am not a fan of taxidermy that makes new - and often woebegone - creatures from the parts of other animals.  I think much of such combinatory art uses animals as mere raw materials, manhandled for shock effect or to manifest the dark depths of the human imagination.  Perhaps this is just not my personal aesthetic (I am hardly a fan of ghoulish aesthetics), but I think a certain respect is always due to the dead, animals included.  Of course, it could be argued that kittens wearing dresses or post-suicidal squirrels are equally disrespectful, misusing animals for humorous effect, but at least these beasts are whole, recognisable, and retain their organic integrity.  But of course, with taxidermy everything is open for debate. 

Having said that, I must admit I find Iris Shieferstein's series "Life can be so nice" immensely compelling.  Little pigs, snakes, birds, and other small animals are combined into new species and posed to spell out a refrain from the Prince song "Life can be so nice."  Prince's lyrics are unambiguously blissful: "Kisses never lie when delivered / with milk from your lips / Morning glories never cry / My love for you baby drips / Life can be so nice / It's a wonderful world, sweet paradise / Kiss me once, kiss me twice / Life can be so nice, so nice / Life can be so nice."  Transmuted in animal flesh by Sheiferstein, the refrain becomes something different, not darker or sadder exactly, but filled with a searing sort of reality, a haunting enigmatic truth.  

All taxidermy renders animals immortal, and by that immortality they exist apart from us while still physically lurking in this world. Shieferstein's "Life can be so nice" wouldn't be the same if she had spelled the letters with "real" animals.  There is something extra that is conveyed by the fact that these are dream beasts, immortal dream beasts, which literally spell out a yearning for a simple paradise on earth.

Photographs by Stehpan Rabold.

These images of a step-by-step timber wolf are from the American Museum of Natural History's image archives.  The phographs were all taken by Robert Logan in 1947.

Taxidermist & sculptor Lisa Black combines taxidermy with working gears and other mechanical contraptions including, yes, a wind-up baby crocodile. You tell me what to think of this because, really, I've got no idea where to begin.

See more of her work here +