Bringing Death to life

There's a group of skilled young Shanghai technicians who spend their days among blood, bodies and chemicals trying to create the illusion of life. Not modern day Frankensteins, these men are actually taxidermists working for the Shanghai Natural History Museum and the Science and Technology Museum.

They go to work every day ready to create models that inspire visitors to museums - a vast range of animals including lions, bears, birds, fish and other creatures that look very alive.

Creating this illusion is not easy. Some of the exhibits will take two or three months to complete and the taxidermists, working in summer especially, have to endure the stench of decomposing flesh as they turn corpses into vibrant lifelike display pieces, lions running, penguins feeding or jackals fighting over their prey.

They work in a large white-walled room on the first floor of the Taxidermy Center in Minhang district. The big windows let the daylight shine onto incomplete models of a whale, a moose and barrels of animal skins being preserved and sanitized. The team wears overalls that make them look a little like construction workers and the center does sometimes look like a building site.

Advanced techniques

"The old method where the skins of animals were simply stuffed with bamboo fibre often made the exhibits look fatter than they should, not realistic at all," said Zhang Nianshi, the director of the Taxidermy Center. Today they use the most advanced taxidermy techniques, often sculpting their creations with clay and other materials.

"Although it takes much longer and there are more procedures involved in making a model, the exhibits look much more lifelike and their musculature can be seen clearly," Zhang said.

With the new style exhibits, visitors can see the muscles as they would work in life on a moving animal. The detail is hugely improved from the old models which were simply stuffed skins.

When an animal arrives for treatment the skin and flesh first have to be removed from the bones. For some species the museum will also exhibit a skeleton model.

Recently a large snake arrived at the museum. It took 30-year-old Zhang Tangming two weeks to complete the dissection and cleaning. The more than 600 bones in the snake had to be removed, cleaned and put back together as a skeleton. A very complicated jigsaw puzzle indeed and made even more complex because the snake skeleton will be displayed as if it is winding around a tree trunk.

Making a model with modern sculpting techniques is even more complicated. First the taxidermist has to peel the skin off the body of the animal as carefully as possible. The skin is then treated with preservative and disinfectant, sometimes coloring is added. Clay molds are made of the animal's skull and skeleton. Then using the molds as the basic shape, a filling material is prepared and worked so that it precisely imitates the animal's form. Finally the skin is stretched back on the model and tightened.

To study the latest techniques for sculpting, the distinguished Finnish taxidermist Eirik Granqvist has agreed to visit the center in Shanghai regularly to teach and supervise the taxidermists.

A form of art

"This new technique makes the process of creating models a form of art and it involves many complicated procedures and skills. Although the work needs painstaking attention to detail, whenever a model is completed, the joy at the accomplishment is great," said Shan Kun, a 34-year-old taxidermist, who started work at the center in 2007.

It's not just skilled fingers that are needed to make a lifelike model. "You have to know the animal's behavior, its habits and its environment if you want to make a successful exhibit," Zhang Nianshi said.

"We went to the Tibet Autonomous Region in 2008 to observe animals. And we often go to the zoo to observe animal behavior, the way they act and stand and even the way they use their eyes. We photograph and film them to learn how they walk or crawl. We have to know how they live in the wild and what they look like when they move. Then we can start recreating this with our clay molds," said Shan Kun.

In the center stands a life-sized pair of penguins made last year. The mother penguin is feeding her chick. Instead of standing facing the mother, the little penguin has its back to its mother and cranes its head up to receive the food from its mother's beak. "This special feeding position we learned through observation, from watching films and documentaries about penguins. Experts have praised these models," Shan Kun said proudly.

Making the skins fit is another special skill. "It's like making a suit with material. Taxidermists also have to learn tailoring skills. Not everyone can do this," said Zhang Nianshi, who started working in taxidermy when he was 17, some 30 years ago.

The center is staffed by 10 taxidermists, three model sculptors and two maintenance men. All began their career as museum tour guides. "They worked at the museum for several years before they were trained to be taxidermists. They were interested in animals and because of their work they already had a lot of knowledge about animals that helped them with their taxidermy," Zhang Nianshi said. Some had studied biology but all had to learn the art of taxidermy from the ground up. They learned the practical side before studying the theory at East China Normal University. Now they have mastered dissection, chemistry, carpentry, welding, tailoring and make-up. They can produce a perfect 10-centimeter bird, a 5.5-meter whale, an 800-kilogram bear or a 4.5-meter giraffe. They have their make-up secrets as well - some use eyelash curlers to make the edges of the wings of a bird look as if it is in flight.

"At the beginning, I just thought it would be fun to learn taxidermy. However the more I learned and the longer I do this job, the more interesting I find it to be," said 30-year-old Zhao Xiaoqing.

Strong stomachs

To date no women have applied to become taxidermists. The stench in the workroom, a blend of chemicals and putrefying flesh, can be overpowering at times and the job requires a strong stomach.

The worst times are when dead whales are brought in for modeling. When these huge beasts arrive they have usually begun to rot and their insides are swollen with gases. "When you cut a whale open, the smell is something you will never forget for the rest of life," Shan Kun said.

The chemicals taxidermists use in their work are also powerful but, unlike those of years ago, not so dangerous. In the past the highly toxic formaldehyde was used to preserve specimens, especially fish and embryos. Today a non-toxic chemical is used though formaldehyde is still used in some stages. Many very old exhibits were preserved with arsenical soap which was a health threat to both the taxidermists and the people who came close to the exhibits.

"Good safe chemicals can make animal fur soft and pliable," Shan said. "Sometimes if an animal's spleen has begun to rot, we still use a little formaldehyde which is effective as an antiseptic. But these days there is no risk of being poisoned by exposure to dangerous chemicals."

Hard labor

The taxidermists at the center work hard but they get paid about 3,000 yuan ($476) a month even when their working conditions leave a lot to be desired. Some of the young men say they have trouble finding girlfriends who would want to marry them.

Ruan Minjie and his wife used to work together at the museum. "She loves animals as well and understands my work. As long as I have a shower after work she never complains," 28-year-old Ruan said.

These days some of the team are working on a polar bear which will be one of the highlights when the new Natural History Museum opens in the Jing'an Sculpture Park on Beijing Road West in 2014. Shan Kun is making a clay model of the skull, constantly checking photographs as he goes to ensure the bear will be realistic. One of the final stages of his work will be giving the bear its eyes. The eyes for the animals at the museums are usually imported - some rare eyes can cost up to 160 euros ($213).