Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Taxidermists in Africa

Guys, looking at going back to Africa. Went 10 years ago and had a great time. Had all my trophies mounted in RSA. The deal was good (too good) but after 10 years, the quality stinks. Planning a trip back and want to know if the quality has improved or what would you recommend?

dont know what the work was like 10 years ago, but the taxidermist that does my ,and my friends mounts are good. so much so that i know he does a lot of foreign customer mounts as well. keep in mind that more than 90% of animals hunted in s- africa are hunted by local hunters. i therefore think that the standard of local taxidermist must be above average just to satisfy the local market. t/dermists have a governing body where you can lodge complaints and they know it.

good luck, hope you enjoy it over here as much as we enjoy having you guys here

Derek Robinson taxidermy and Roy Hayes taxidermy in RSA both do good work. It isn't the bargain that in once was, but what is?

I know Derek as well and he is very good. He's not excited about doing dip pack only but the taxidermy work is above average for Africa.

Nobody does Taxidermy like the USA. No place has the amount of taxidermists, or the frequent and detailed competition that America has. Lots of part time average joe taxidermy work done out of a garage far exceeds the rest of the world in quality.

Taxidermy in the USA is a huge business with so many manufacturers that have every kind of helpful aide and body part. Eyes are available in dozens of types and for every species. You name it you can buy it from a taxidermy catalog, repro claws, ear liners, bodies, tongues, heads for turkeys, no place has this kind of precision and availability.

I worked with the cape town museum for a while and with one of the lady Taxidermists. She also did sporting trophies on the side. She was simply stunned when I showed her the catalogs from Van Dykes, Mckenzie, and Research mannequins. They have to make all these things themselves with crude materials by comparison.

The absolute best of the taxidermists that I have met in RSA have gone to America to work for a while and to see how things are done in the USA. It's the same for much of the world outside the America where Taxidermy is concerned. I know of good work in RSA, and had an excellent Taxidermist that did work on par with almost anyone. Yet one year the work had many problems and poor quality with a multitude of other issues. Seems materials, tanning, and local help fell apart, he got behind, and hurried to catch up leaving quality behind.

So we now use another Taxidermist there and hope that this will work better for us. He's got a huge commercial business and has excellent trophies there. However it's Africa??? who knows

Speaking just for myself, I'll just have skull mounts or leave them behind. It's just too darn expensive to collect prepare and ship even the raw skins to be done here. Then what does my family do with this when I'm gone? Ebay?

I say this having done my own taxidermy for pushing 30 years and having access to a huge studio to do all my work in. Even without labor, and all materials at cost it's just not practical any more.

Taxidermy is pricing itself out of the market for the average guy.

Thanks guys. I love my african trophies. But even shortly after I returned, I had to get my state-side taxidermist to do some work to repair the mounts done in RSA. Not to mention the mounts that were damaged in shipping because of the poor quality of the "crate" built to ship them in. But JJ, you are right, the work looks like it was "fashioned" together. Little details, horn gluing, eyes, ears, etc. It is more economical to have them done there, but the price I paid afterwards made it almost equal.

I'll have to disagree with JJ on this.

There's good and bad taxidermists all over the world and that includes the USA. All you have to do is take a look at a few websites and you'll see what I mean.

A good way to spot good from bad is to take a look at the cats... esp Leopard which are the hardest to get right and the easiest to get wrong. Look at a few taxidermy forums and you'll find as many bad American taxidermists as you see from anywhere else in the world. - Some of the cats especially are truly appalling!

One of the best in SA is Lifeform Taxidermy and one of the best in the USA is Buckshot Taxidermy in Texas.

As far as price is concerned, it's been proven time and time again that it's cheaper to have taxidermy done in Africa than elsewhere but as I see it, price shouldn't really be a priority criteria. Either way, you might save a grand or so on a shipment but as you have to look at the taxidermy for the rest of your life, it's better to have the best taxidermy rather than the cheapest.

This was part of my world in both South Africa and the USA for more then 2 decades. Here are some things to consider:

How many absolute top of the line taxidermy schools are there in the USA VS the rest of the world?

How many students come to the USA to learn this from around the world, and has there ever been anyone, even a single person? (Even a bad kid the parents just wanted to send away to school for a few years) to leave the USA for this education?

There are state wide Taxidermy competitions with the NTA that number in the many thousands of participants, and competitors ( in each state).

This includes but is not limited to competitions for supplies, such as hand painted custom eyes, sculpture of animal bodies which are usually done by sculptors and not taxidermists. These sculptures are then bid on and purchased by the mannequin manufacturers to be used as molds for the taxidermy industry. They are also made into sizes to fit smaller and larger animals.

This include fish, birds, and small game sculptures as well, turkey heads, painting supplies, claws, etc..

National NTA events fill a huge convention hall with many hundreds of competitors IN EACH CATEGORY! You can get lost in the place. With the row after row of participants, it's stunning! You can see more spectacular taxidermy then you would have imagined possible under one roof. These participants have crated and shipped mounts from their shop and shipped them across the USA to compete in these events.

How many taxidermy supply manufacturers are there in the USA VS the rest of the world combined?

How many taxidermy industry magazines are based in the USA ( ALL of them)

Go to any town in the USA pick up the phone book and you will see many taxidermists listed. I know the USA is a much bigger country, but the amount of Taxidermy done in the USA is quite likely more then the rest of the world combined!


There are great taxidermists in the world, no argument, but on average no place on earth has the skill and experience of the average guy in the USA. I think ........ well maybe because of my lifestyle? That everyone I know actually knows somebody who is a taxidermist or does in as a hobby.

Just because there are a lot of people in the USA does not mean they are all good, but the competition is huge. The ease to do this work better then average is easy with the kinds of supplies and information available.

Go into a sporting goods store in most of Southern Africa and look at the shoulder mounts around the store walls. There are a lot of Stuffed heads that look like they are "mounted" and were done in the USA about 80 years ago.

Then go into a Sportsmans Warehouse, Cabelas, or any podunk sporting goods section in a farm and feed store and look at the shoulder mounts there. Once you do this little exercise you can see instantly what is acceptable in each location as quality work.

Look at the back cover of every SCI magazine and then you will see what the goal and capacity of this business is in the USA VS the rest of the world.

There are great possibilities in RSA to have the work done, but unless you use one of those guys, your probably not going to get the same kind of work done that you would here. It will be less expensive, and the mechanics of the work are good, but the detail and the little things are just not there on average.

I think maybe we'll have to agree to disagree on this one my friend.

All you have to do is take a quick visit to the AR taxidermy forum and for every good American taxidermist you see there, you'll see two bad ones. Try doing a search on that same forum on cats and you'll see spray painted feet, legs bending the wrong way and what appears to be modified mountain lion forms........ and the funny thing is, most, if not all, think they've done a good job!

On the other hand, one could argue that an African taxidermist works on those animals every day of his life rather than a few, every once in a while. Consequently, that added experience would be reflected in the quality of the product.

All of the African taxidermists mentioned here are extremely good but my advice to anyone would be to visit a few sites both here and in the US, (or indeed elsewhere) look esp hard at the cats and then decide which you think looks most lifelike.

I've seen both great and dreadful taxidermy from both countries.

This is good info with both sides have experienced and reasoned opinions. I take no offense to disagreement with these things. I like the debate/chat and to hear the other opinions.

Prices in RSA have escalated over the past 15 years. Once you could get top quality work done in Rands for what you would get in the USA for Dollars. That made RSA one hell of a deal. I found that soon the top RSA names started charging USA prices, and the deal went out the window.

Do North American, particulary Canadian taxidermists have access to forms that represent African animals accurately?
Randy

The majority of forms used in RSA for the bigger taxidermy shops were combining shipments of supplies from Jonas and Mckenzie by the container load. Those that did not were still using laminated paper forms. The Museum was using all sculpted forms until just a few years ago, now they too are using all foam forms purchased from American Suppliers. Anne Wicks was the primary Taxidermist there and she was also subscribing to Breakthrough magazine for the leading edge technology used in the states.

The quality of the competitive sculpted forms made by the American Suppliers has to be seen to be believed, they are like stand alone Artwork.

Do a web search for taxidermy mannequins and look at the hundreds if not thousands of available forms. note the detail and quality. No place on Earth can come close to this selection.

Mobuhunter,

After my brother and I got a little burned by a taxidermist in Africa, I would have them done now in the States only. What we saw in the shop was not the same quality shipped to us. Just my two cents. PM me if you would like to ask any detailed questions.

Lifeform Taxidermy which is just up the road from me must now be one of the biggest, if not the biggest in Africa now and comprises of something like 4 or 5 adjacent large warehouses all in a row plus a large office block. Just the packing dept is an entire warehouse. As well as hunting trophies, they also do work for museums all over the world. Some of their dioramas they do for the museums simply take your breath away.

I saw a diorama there recently of a leopard on a tree beside a waterhole eating an impala with a HUGE croc leaping out of the water trying to steal the impala. I'm going from memory here but think it was done for a Texan client and it was in the packing warehouse when I saw it...... What was especially clever was that the whole thing came apart for packing...... I was buggered if I could see the joins though!

Most (probably all) of the forms are made in house and from what I've seen (I'm a regular visitor) they often make the mould and then finish by hand for the special/unusual orders.

Another great thing about their service is that they allocate each client an individual staff member so there's always a really good contact set up where the staff member knows exactly what's happening to someone's trophies every step of the way.

As I said before, there's good and bad taxidermists all over the world and my advice would be not to choose by location or even price but by quality of work and what you like.

I'm using Highlands Game Ind. Taxidermy in RSA. Hedrick used to do cats for Lifeform. Prices are reasonable and I've seen his work & I'm impressed.

I did the tour of Lifeform when we were dropping off our skins and horns. It is a helluva spread.

I had mine done at Trans Africa Taxidermists, in South Africa. We spent a fair amount of time touring the plant -- and it truly is a manufacturing plant, including its own tannery -- before making an arrangement with them. I'm not at all convinced that it was cheaper than having it done in the USA, but having had eight or ten American animals mounted in the USA by various American taxidermists, I am convinced that they are way better than most of the "local" ones I've used.

I am very happy with the taxidermy work done in Africa and the people there I worked with, that is for sure.

Dennis

By the time you add the shipping of shoulder mounts etc. you will not save any money..

I always advise my clients to have all work done in the USA, anytime you do business of any kind you may run into problems, sometimes so bad you may require a lawyer, or you may have to look your devil in the eye face to face! :))) Do you want to jump a $2000 flight to Africa to try and work it out in foriegn soil, I wouldn't....

US taxidermist are as good or better than any in the world regardless of what some that work off a commission will tell you.

I am not saying that some African taxidermist are not good or honest, some are and some are not, just like in the good old USA..It's just a lot easier to get by the hiccups in the country you live in...

I'm sorry I disagree, unless things have changed drastically since 2006 when I had my stuff done over there. I kept pretty meticulous records. In 2002 I saved exactly 39% and in 2006 I saved less, about 32%. jorge

Right or wrong I have mine at Highveld Taxidermists, looked like a pretty good setup, nice people that gave us the grand tour and they build their own forms.
Once I got home we have been in communications with no problems.
15 months wait yet on mine before they ship.