The Making Of A Leopard

[gizmo]

This post is long overdue, for that my apologies. This concept started a couple of years ago when @AZDAVE went on an epic leopard hunt. He and his lovely wife had a fantastic Namibian adventure. Naturally good ‘ole USFW held up progress on getting the cat in and it seemed forever before all permits were approved and the crate containing their leopard, ostrich, springbok, gemsbok, and Damara Dik Dik arrived. Once in my hot little hands I worked my magic for the USDA clearance and sent the hides off to the tannery with fingers crossed there wouldn’t be any major cape issues as they had sat dry salted for eons.

Now a little preface, I have mounted all sorts of cats from mountain lions to servals. I do not claim to be a cat guy, I mount a good enough cat but this leopard! Omg, it is dang near 170lb cat and I have a ton of responsibility on my shoulders with it. Luckily, I had the opportunity to meet Daniel Ming a few years ago. He is a world champion taxidermist and won his championship with a leopard. He has mounted more leopards and lions probably than any other taxidermist in history. I had taken a leopard class with him and had visited with him about this leopard in particular. He graciously offered to help me with it and so once the cat was back from the tannery I was South Dakota bound.

Daniel recently went out on his own mounting animals for private customers. He has a cozy little studio in the absolute middle of nowhere South Dakota. This was the first time I have been to SD and I have to say I was very pleased. It is a beautiful state and the little town Daniel is in sits right on the Missouri river. Absolutely stunning view!

Anyway, I had ordered a form that we could use as a starting point. The thing with this leopard is that they don’t make a leopard form in this pose on a left turn. There are oodles of right turns but alas no left turn. So, what to do? Well, you start with a form that is as close in size as you can get and hack it all apart and completely rebuild and resculpt the entire cat. This isn’t a bad thing though as rarely are the forms actually anatomically correct anyway so since we are building it essentially from scratch we can correct these issues. Daniel was absolutely instrumental in helping me with this. His knowledge of big cats is truly amazing. He has probably forgotten more about big cats than any of us will ever know. Despite his incredible knowledge and unequalled skill as a taxidermist he is incredibly humble and very soft spoken. He is also a fantastic teacher and I have to say I learned more from working with him on this project than I ever learned in all the other schools I have ever taken combined.

I had sent the skin to him a few weeks earlier, the tannery did a terrible job of fleshing it and it had to be re-fleshed. When I received it from the tannery this 170lb monster with a 30” neck looked slightly bigger than a large bobcat. No worries, Daniel; had it re-fleshed and appropriately stretched by the time I got there. Huge, help!

So, we took the original form that was facing the wrong direction and used it as a test fit to see where at.

Us test fitting the cat, notice the direction.

Cat fits reasonably well for the most part. The head was way wrong and the neck was entirely too small. We start cutting it apart and flip the torso the right direction. We use one of Daniel’s custom heads that he has personally sculpted. His largest head is still way too small for this kitty so I cut the back of the head off. It needed an inch in length and width on the back of the head, face looked good and eye to nose is spot on. I saw the back of the head off and pin it an inch back and the two pieces an inch wider. I foam it in and wait for it to set up. Worked like a champ so I clean it up and sculpt it to proper width and shape. I cut the nose off of the head as we decided it would be best to go with an artificial nose. The cat’s nose was completely trashed thanks to a careless flesher at the tannery. Not really sure how that happened considering it had hardly been touched and had shrunk up like crazy when they sent it to me. Ah, one of many frustrations as a taxidermist. On the bright side, considering the tannery had done a half ass flesh job there were only a couple of fleshing holes and a trashed nose. All things considered not too bad, especially in comparison to the absolute hack jobs I’d have to deal with when I got back. (More on that later)

While I was doing this Daniel cut, foamed, and resculpted the neck. As I said earlier, this cat has a 30” neck. That may sound like just a number but think about this, that’s the same size neck as say a 3 year old elk or in African terms a rutted up kudu!

We get that all completed and start working on the front legs and shoulders. We were able to leave the back legs as is which saved a bunch more time and modification. I take one side and Daniel takes the other. The cat’s front legs needed to swap directions. I took the left side and started cutting away as he took the right and straightened that leg out. Daniel noticed the left humerus and ulna were too short so he had me lengthen them. The front legs are structural so we took some heavy rod and bent it to shape so I can put the arm pieces on it and foam in the gaps. Once that was done I could sculpt the muscles and the Olecranon in.

A lot of modification later and the form is just about ready to mount on. We hadn’t attached the head yet as it is an open mouth pose and had to install a jaw set. Surprisingly, McKenzie makes a really good leopard jawset so I had ordered one when I ordered the form and tail. We cut the jaw out and installed the jawset then attached the head. Ready to pre-fit!!!!

Pre-fit went well so I attacked installing the tail in, well…., the tail. You’d be surprised at how many stitches it takes to sew up a leopard tail but it’s a butt ton!

Ha! Got a leopard by the tail.

Too be continued…….

 

[buck wild]

When you say “reflesh” are you talking about reshaving the already tanned hide? Go ahead and name the Tannery !

 

[AZDAVE]

Thank you so much for taking on my project.

 

[gizmo]

When you say “reflesh” are you talking about reshaving the already tanned hide? Go ahead and name the Tannery !

Yes exactly, I’m not name dropping the tannery or even hinting at it but I’m positive you know who it is. Due to logistics I still have to do business with them and can’t afford starting a war. They have an excellent tan and I love working with it, they also pickup raws and salted hides from me which makes a huge difference in cost on my end. They have been very good to me over the years as a whole but the abilities of their fleshers has gone down hill. I think the Covid shut downs really hurt them and they lost a lot of folks. Most of us in business can relate to that.They are absolutely doing their best to train their people and I believe it will get better. I can always fix the capes but I loose a ton of time and have a bunch of excess labor as a result.

 

[gizmo]

Thank you so much for taking on my project.

Thank you for letting me! It was truly the most fun I’ve ever had and the highlight of my career thus far.

 

[buck wild]

Yes, it is hard to train good shavers.

 

[gizmo]

After sewing the tail in I did the final cape repair. Daniel had fixed several spots already so it didn't take long to get it knocked out.
Moving forward from this point I really wanted to absorb as much as possible from Daniel. Up to this point we were doing things that I do on 99% of our life sizes. Form modification is just a part of the work so I was very confident in my abilities. The next part however is where I wanted to be like a sponge and absorb as much information as possible.

We put the ears in it. I watched as Daniel did one ear and I did the other. The rest of the mounting process would go like that. My ear met his approval so it was time to start clay work. I clayed in some muscles and had him sign off on them. Now it's time for the face!
A huge part of taxidermied cats is the face. If you screw up one little thing on a cat face the whole mount will look like absolute crap. First up was the nose. We installed it, as with anything it took a bit of fitting to get it right. Once that was finished we started claying the face. We spent a bit of time discussing anatomy, face structure, and expressionism.
I watched and took notes as he demonstrated one half of the face. Leopards are very cool to work on as there is so much that goes into getting them right. When finished it looks just like some clay thrown on there but it is so much more than that. Eye set is crucial and if the eyes are installed too shallow or too deep it will look terrible. Leopards, and cats in general, have a deepish eye set. He explained measurements and how all the muscles go together in the face to make it look like a leopard. After he finished the cat's left side it was my turn!
Daniel's demonstration side

I was pretty nervous. Not out of fear of doing it wrong, but I am standing next to a world champ and THE authority on cat taxidermy and I didn't want to look like a chump. I took my time and followed his instruction. I was so happy because I nailed it! Apparently you can teach old dogs new tricks!
My side completed, I was very pleased with my ability to mimic his instruction.

Form ready to mount

Once that was done the rest was back to normal every day stuff and we had the cat together in no time. The only other thing that I needed help with is getting the feet correct. It is a bit more complicated than one would think. It isn't just about getting the shape of the foot and toes correct, you absolutely must get the nail set correct and have the mechanics of the foot correct. Depending upon the angle of the foot, how much weight is on it, and what the foot is actually doing is very important. As with everything else He demonstrated one side and I mounted the other side.
From here it was all down hill. Eyes were tucked, tail was set, feet were mounted, and the jawset was completed. We flipped the cat over and sewed it up.
After we finished we righted the cat and put it on a wood substructure that would act as the skeleton of the rock it would go on.
We then stepped back to look at the piece and see if there was any adjustment needed. I was in awe. Three very long very hard days of work and I was looking at the most magnificent leopard I've ever seen. We went over it with a fine tooth comb and made some slight adjustments here and there, did a little grooming and oogled over what we had accomplished.
All of this sounds well and fine giving a cliff notes version of what it took to get the cat mounted. The reality was 3 very long tough days of busting our collective asses to get this cat mounted properly. It was an absolute labor of love and I couldn't be more happy of what we did.
Mounting completed

Daniel and I posing with the finished cat

We let the cat dry over night and early the next morning we loaded and secured it in my trailer for the long road home. Northern South Dakota is a hellava long way from Amarillo Texas and to say I was white knuckled driving to make it home without anything happening to the cat is an understatement. The only time I can remember being that nervous driving home was when we took my daughter home for the first time after she was born. 16 hours later I made it to the office with no bogies, Praise be to Jesus!
At this point only 1/3 of the work on the piece was finished. I still had to do the finishwork on the cat itself, build the rock, do the habitat work, and mount the Dik Dik that was going on the base with it.
Dave is building the stand for the base himself as he is a very accomplished wood worker (He's a hellava gunsmith also, he is currently building my 9.3x64 and has done an incredible job thus far).
So now comes the other 2/3 of work going into the piece.
We will start with the mounting of the Dik Dik when we return from this commercial break, stay tuned!

 

[Hunt anything]

Looking forward to the rest, all of the stitches in the tail makes my fingers hurt just thinking about it.

 

[gizmo]

Now that the cat is back safely the rest of the work begins. Dave and his wife were just about to leave for Mozambique which was nice and gave me time to catch up on a few things from being gone. After buttoning up some loose ends I started the process of designing the piece. I'd had plenty of time to think about the "feel" of the piece and the overall balance.
I decided to finish the cat, them mount the Dik Dik, then start the rock and habitat work. The finishwork on the cat went smooth. I epoxied the mouth and smoothed it, epoxied the eyes, and painted everything. As I had learned from Daniel the nose color varies widely in cats and has quite a bit to do with age. I reached out for some reference photo's of the cat but the nose was a bit dirty and bloody and difficult to see. I had to use a bit of "artistic license" so I pulled every reference photo I could find of big mature tom's and matched them. The picture really doesn't show what it looks like in person. The undertones are much more distinctive and it isn't quite that dark. Crap lighting and a cell phone camera equal not so great pics.

If you notice he now has wiskers. Most of his wiskers were gone so I re-attached those that were left and broke into my secret stash of "cat whiskers".

Now starts the Dik Dik. Form was in so I started modifying it to get what I wanted. He needed to be looking hard over his right shoulder so I cut the head off, chop up the neck, put it back together, foam it in and sculpt it.

Now for the cape, I get it thawed and pull it out hopeful it will be in good shape with minimal repairs. I unfold it and my blood pressure immediately spikes. The exit hole had been caught during fleshing and there is a hole that you can easily fit a softball through. To make matters worse the pieces were completely gone. There is absolutely no way to sew it up and have it look right much less fix.
So......... major surgery it is and my day is shot. Welcome to taxidermy and especially African taxidermy. Clients would absolutely shit if they saw how bad the majority of their capes are when we get them. A combination of poor careless skinning, crap salt (Outfitters are notorious for reusing salt which is a huge problem), and crap handling at the taxidermy shop over there. Add to this sitting around dry salted (improperly a good portion of the time) way too long waiting on permits, delayed shipping, and terrible fleshing work from tanneries on our side adds up to a crap ton of repairs and labor by your taxidermist. Our job is to recreate the animal as lifelike as humanly possible and do our best to make sure repairs look invisible or as close to that as possible. Many taxidermists absolutely hate doing it or do not know how to properly fix things and that is why a heck of a lot of mounts from both sides of the pond look like crap when they are finished. It takes a lot of patience born of an absolute love for these animals.
Only crazies enjoy this type of thing so that pretty well sums up me. I love working on African animals, I would say it is a passion but really its more of an obsession. Its what I love and what I do. Africa is in my soul and being able to work on these animals is a huge blessing. I put my heart and soul in them and every single animal has a story to tell. Being able to work on these animals is a true blessing and constant reminder of just how truly blessed I am to work a job I am passionate about. Sorry for the warm fuzzy stuff but I cannot tell you how much I love my job, it is amazing!
So as you can see I have a bit of a challenge to deal with. Luckily I hoard spare animal parts and I happened to have a bunch of Damara DiK Dik pieces. Now comes the tedious part of reparing the hole.

Fixed! Seams will be dealt with when it's mounted, wont be able to see them.

Once that is done I fit the cape and start mounting. It was a a chore hiding the repairs but he mounted up well. I love these little guys and have mounted several of these Damara's as well as a boat load of the rest of the tiny ten. They are some of my favorites to work on.
Dik Dik are of genus Madoqua. There are four subspecies; Gunther's dik dik, Kirk's dik dik, silver dik dik, and salts dik dik. The Damara is actually a Kirk's dik dik. I would love to mount the other subspecies, especially the Gunther's Dik Dik. I will absolutely make some folks a great deal on their Dik Dik's if you'll send me some of the others to work on!

Brown spot on the neck is carding to flatten a seam as it is drying.

His glands on the face are blown out but that is easily repaired during the finish work.

Jumping forward a bit but he turned out great! Viola

 

[gizmo]

More to come!

 

[gizmo]

Once our friend the Dik Dik was mounted, dried, and finished now came the part of putting it all together. I took the cat off the wooden stand and attached the stand to a piece of heavy plywood that will serve as a foundation for the piece. I needed the top of the rock, where the feet go, attached first. I used rock panels to make the rock. they are essentially 4x5 ish sheets of a molded rock. they are flat in the since of like a 4x8 sheet of plywood but obviously have various angles and protrusions. You just cut the into pieces and start building a rock. You use screws to attach them to a base and each other, fill the seams with news paper and foam, then once the foam dries shape it to the desired look, and plaster over it and blend it in. It took 3 1/2 rock sheets to build the rock.
Anyway, Once he was placed ontop of the sheet pieces I started cutting the desired angles and built the rock. I wanted it to be a two part rock. The main piece being larger and taller for the front of the cat and the smaller and shorter piece being for the back of the cat thus creating a two piece rock that elevates the front of the cat and gives the impression of him gluiding up the rock. The back rock piece was modled after a rock I saw in Namibia where the back of it had cracked and fallen off eons ago and silted in around it. Hopefully I pulled it off. Y'all are certainly the judges of that.

Building the rock took the better part of two days to get it built, do the seam work, and lay the foundation for the ground. I also installed the dik dik in place. I foamed the ground base in and bagged and tapped them off so I could start the paint work for the rock.

 

[slam8031]

Fantastic work Erik! I know Dave will be more than pleased with your artistry! Hope to see your artistry on a deer with my name on it soon!!!

 

[gizmo]

Ok so now comes the fun part, painting this dude! It takes a lot of different colors to get the desired effect. I don't have a "per say" paint schedule. I've just developed a kind of system over the years to get rocks various color and shades desired.

I started laying the dirt.
After dirt is laid its all about painting the dirt and sealing stuff with different clear coats to get rid of paint sheen. After that i do all the things to make the dirt, well.... look like dirt and the rock to look like a rock. It took another two days or so to do that and fix all the little stuff you don't realize you missed.
Here is the end result for those who have not seen it yet.

I hope ya'll enjoyed this post. I wanted to show what goes into something like this. People do not realize all of the work and labor involved in proper taxidermy. This is the reason good taxidermy costs what it does. The materials are a small part of the pie, its the hours and hours and weeks of labor that you are paying for. Also the knowledge and experience of the taxidermist. It is a ton of work. This piece total took a little over a month of non stop work.
The thing I don't want is this to come across as me "tooting my own horn". That is not my intention. For one I had the help of a world champion watching over me to make sure I didn't screw any of the technical aspects of the leopard up. When I do big cats like this I reach out to Daniel for help and will do so until I reach a skill set and knowledge base to do it without over sight. My biggest fear is to have something screwed up and give a client a piece of crap. I will not allow that to happen at my studio. I will do everything in my power to make sure folks are getting the best quality possible. Good work takes time though, within reason. I can understand the frustration of having to wait 16-18 months to get animals back but I guarantee if you use a competent and skillful taxidermist that it is worth the wait. There are some true artists out there that do phenomenal work all across the country. You absolutely do not get that in Africa, I'm sorry but that is a fact. Some people are not particular about their taxidermy and that's fine. Different strokes for different folks.
It is so hard for me to look at some of the pieces I see and see just how half assed and shotty the work is. These animals are the pride and joy of the their owners and should reflect the sacrifice of the animal. It just doesn't do justice to the animal when they aren't right.

I'm going to take a minute to get on a pseudo soap box. My advice to taxidermists that are just starting out, as there are a bunch that follow this forum:

I can remember being so excited to get animals back from a taxidermist and be so disappointed when I picked them up. When I started, like everyone else, my stuff was rough but I have worked relentlessly to improve my skill set. I am certainly not a world champion but I am constantly learning and striving to improve my work. All taxidermists should do the same. If he/she doesn't your client needs to find a new one. The most important piece of taxidermy is the one you are working on right now, be damned with turn around time. Give turn around time estimates but not set in stone deadlines because there are so many things completely out of your control. Tanneries, out of stocks, back orders, equipment break downs, and countless other Gremlins that cause delays. Under promise and always over deliver.
Taxidermist should take the time to do the best job to their abilities and constantly strive to improve. Take classes, study anatomy, learn wood working and fabrication. You don't need to be a master carpenter or welder but need to know the basics to be able to properly build a solid base that can be shipped to the client's home in town or all the way across the country.
Taxidermy is an art, one must have some artistic ability but at the end of the day it isn't rocket surgery. The most important thing is a passion about animals and a deep yearning to always continue to learn and improve. There are schools all over the country so save up and take classes. Never stop learning, this industry is always advancing. Stay on top of it.
Screw ups happen, when they do own it. It may cost a client but do everything you can to make it right. Also, you cant please everyone. There are many people out there that bounce from taxidermist to taxidermist and complain about nonsense to try and get you to give them a discount or for free. Don't let them back you in a corner. There is a reason the other taxidermists won't do work for them and they are coming to you. That being said, if you screwed up own it and be honest. Make every effort to make it right.
Another thing for beginning taxidermists, we are all in this together. Whether you are across the street or across the country work together with other taxidermists. If someone calls you for help, help them if you can. You may need their help one day. They may be a competitor but they are not your enemy. There are a TON of taxidermists that are members of this forum. They have been absolutely instrumental in helping me over the years. @buck wild is one who spent a lot of time over the years and especially when I first started helping me to improve. I appreciate it so very much and hope I am able to return the favors one day. He is one of many that has sent me PM's over the years to give me advice and constructive criticism.
Lastly, take criticism; it's the only way you learn and how you get better. Don't make excuses for it, listen and correct.
Ok, rant over and thanks for tolerating that but I hope we are all successful. If we help each other our work will collectively only get better.
I hope everyone has enjoyed this and learned a lot. I am more than happy to discuss the piece openly or via pm. If you see something you are curious about or don't like please let me know. I would love the opportunity to pick your brain!

 

[Lumaberpat]

This is awesome!

 

[BourbonTrail]

Great write up!

 

[Pablo]

This is absolutely amazing! The headshot of the leopard looks like he is alive. That is the goal. Congrats on a phenomenal job.

 

[buck wild]

Always a pleasure @gizmo . Like I posted on the Texas Taxidermy FB page, if you are still doing things like you did 10 yrs ago, you've quit learning !!

 

[towserthemouser]

I learned a lot from reading this, and really enjoyed having the chance to "go inside the mind" of a dedicated taxidermist. The piece is exceptional, my congratulations to you and to the lucky hunter.

 

[DillonG]

Amazing work. I have a lot of respect for the time and attention to detail needed to make mounts like this. Good taxidermy is art.

 

[gizmo]

Thank y’all very much!