In the southwest U.S., Sonoran desert toads mate when the rains start during the monsoon season, typically from late June through September. During the mating season males will inflate their vocal sacs and croak. The croaking helps them claim territory and will attract females. I have wanted to create a competition piece with a reproduction toad doing this type of behavior (croaking) for quite a few years. Through the decades of competing and judging, I have never seen one done this way, so I decided to give it a try.

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This is the second part of the story of how I made the sabertooth salmon polyurethane foam model. In the first part, body and fins were shaped and put together, and there were some special solutions necessary to adapt the fins for shipping across the Atlantic. In this part, the main focus will be on details – scales, head details, eyes, and on the final touches to the project.

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Taxidermy usually starts as a hobby when a person is passionate about wildlife, and it can possibly turn into a profitable business. The problem is a sizable number of new artists are just that—artists who have absolutely no business experience or formal business experience. Together let’s dive into the art of running a successful, thriving taxidermy business. OK, so you mounted your first project. You are extremely excited, even though it is probably not all that beautiful of a project, but you are still grinning from ear to ear. If you weren’t totally overwhelmed with the experience, you are “jonesing” to start your next project. Every one of your friends and family are your cheerleaders and are in line for you to do practice projects.

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As I have said in previous articles I enjoy all of the phases in mounting snakes, but it’s the final finishing work that brings back the beauty of these reptiles. Back in Part 1 (Breakthrough Issue #150) I covered my process of molding the head of a snake before the skinning process takes place. It consisted mainly of molding the head of a closed-mouth snake I mounted for this article series.  I also used a custom-molded open-mouth cast that I made myself using similar materials that I used in Part 1 for the closed-mouth head. An open-mouth cast can be made from a frozen head or a freeze-dried head. A snake head has to be shaped and frozen before it goes into a freeze dryer so that part of setting up the head for freezing is the same. It is much easier to mold a dry freeze-dried head than a frozen head, so that is how I prefer to do it.

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Listed are all competitors, their entries, and scores from the 2024 World Taxidermy & Fish Carving Championships that was held August 6–10 in Coralville, Iowa.

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