Long Live Taxidermy!

The 3rd-annual Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest--held at Union Hall on the Day of the Dead--was a beastly success! Check out all the photos on Flickr taken by Robert Marbury, Marco Repola, and Eric Harvey Brown. The Rump Ape--patron saint of the taxidermy contest--(pictured above with Union Hall co-owner Andy Templar) congratulates the winners!

The winners are:

Mike Zohn of Obscura Antiques received the Order of Carnivorous Knights Grand Prize for his "shadowbox mise en scene" of albino weasels posing as miniature polar bears:

Takeshi Yamada (last year's Grand Champion of Taxidermy) defended his title and received the Rump Ape Prize for Best Hybrid Creature:

Ryan Toth of the Evolution store in SoHo brought down the house with his two-faced cat skeleton, Frank & Louie, and won the Secret Science Club Prize for Best in Bones. Pictured below is Darrin Lunde of the American Museum of Natural History inspecting the cat(s):

For his skull--lovingly encrusted with rhinestones--William Graef won the special "Long Pig" Prize awarded by the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists:

The Norman Bates Prize for Best Taxidermy went to Linda Darling for her exquisite bird of paradise:

Doug Klein received the Cabinet of Curiosities Prize for Most Interesting Biological Oddity for this tricky armadillo:

And the Most Twisted Prize sponsored by the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists was shared by J. McGrath for his mysterious specimen (left) and Nate Hill for the A.D.A.M. Project (right). That's Adam's head--in case you were wondering.

And thanks to everyone who contributed their loose change to the Tasmanian Devil Research Fund.

Photos of arctic weasels, Takeshi Yamada, bifurcated cat, and bling skull via Dogseat's flickr; bird of paradise, armadillo, and unknown specimen via istolethetv's flickr; and Nate Hill via Robert Marbury's flickr.