Getting Stuffed At The National Museum Of Tajikistan

One of the highlights at the National Museum of Tajikistan is the expansive display of animal taxidermy. Lots of local fauna is featured in natural looking, a bit crowded habitats. Time to go hunting.

Big sheep with big horns. "We know we're cute."

Falcon with a little lunch. Bloody. Half moose. A nice bit of trompe l'oeil. You work with the taxidermy you have.

Everybody into the pool. More is more, even if some animals would never be seen together. Looking a little like an over-stuffed Bruegel painting.

More sheep, giving the view of their best side. Butt out. Big growl of a wolf.

A little mountain chase between a leopard and sheep.

Fun Taxidermy At Khudayar Khan Palace

Many attractions in Uzbekistan have been restored and then left with the quandary of what to put in all the lovely, empty rooms. Some fancy furniture, maybe textiles? Frequently, stuffed animals fill the void. Taxidermy rocks!

The Khudayar Khan Palace in Kokand devotes a little space to some dead creatures. The combination of old, stuffed animals against what looks like extreme blow ups of low-res photographs makes for a bit of a surreal impression.

Display cabinets with additional creatures that didn't make the cut into a case.

Hello eyeless...what? Deranged duck.

Owl, perhaps waiting on a tootsie pop.

Fierce pheasant. Another fuzzy animal. A mini bear with a shag overcoat? Fashionable wolf?

Back in the marsh, this duck did a bit of an over-bleach. Oh, the vanity.

Taxidermy At The Samarkand Museum

The main museum in Samarkand has a bit of everything. Archeological artifacts, period rooms, some Jewish history. If you're into old animals, plenty of interesting examples of taxidermy critters.

One of the gallery rooms. Vintage all around.

Lions, tigers and bears? Well, a bear, a fox, some prairie dog things, and other beige stuff. Colorful fowl.

Birds of these feathers probably don't flock together. Unless stuffed.

A hare, danger coming from the left. Bear torso, sewn.

More danger. That mouth could use some dental work.

Animal Portraits At the Biological Museum At Al-Farabi Kazakh National University In Almaty

It's a great opportunity for some introspective, almost dreamy, stuffed animal portraits when the animals are displayed in cases with no environment. Time to capture some isolated action, some emotions.

Animal Attraction At The Almaty Nature Museum

Stuffed animals looking spiffy. The Nature Museum in Almaty has the usual circus of long dead animals on display, a chance for a safe encounter with a wild beast.

Hello fowl. Don't adjust your screen, the background is a blown up photo. It's too small a file and now heavily distorted. Or dreamy.

A group of animals that never hang out together. Seems like a class photo. At the watering hole.

Deer and more background fuzziness.

King of the hill? More like mayor of the mound. Fish glow.

Taxidermy bird, hard to get the flight trajectory believable. Maybe a Truman Show outtake.

Seeing Life At The Local History Museum In Karaganda

Nothing better than finding out what a local museum deems worthy of display. What are the highlights, where is the pride? Time to take a peek at some exhibits from the main museum in Karaganda, Kazakhstan.

It's always good to start with some nature. After all, those lovely animals were around before and probably after us messy humans. Nice coat.

Right, humans. They showed up a while ago and found caves and fire. Light it up. Or battle it up. Such an angry species, humans. Not the horses!

What makes Karaganda Karaganda, mining. Hero as driller.

The mundane and the exalted. Fixing a humble tractor and a drink from a gold bowl.

Fun with reality, an example of a typical family apartment from the 1950s. You've got a real table, chairs, a snazzy TV, stereo. Oh, you want real walls and a window? Forget it!

Getting Stuffed At The Museum Of Nature In Tashkent

Such an easy pun. Not taxidermying at all. At Tashkent's Museum of Nature, the fauna is out and it's not moving.

Do not feed the ostrich. 

Friendly and unfriendly pairs. Warthog and mini me. Bird with fish meal and a little side salad.

The watering hole.

Fun with creative crop composition. Do not adjust your frame.

A wolf stuck in a snarl.

The Beechworth Burke Museum

The Burke Museum is Beechworth's own mini version of the Smithsonian, a catch-all collection of the area's attics and history. Dolls, plates, gold rush history, old bottles, taxidermy, bring it.

Housed in an historic building.

One highlight is a Ye Olde Timey Street recreation, complete with a block of store fronts. Walk through history. The men's store, the old version of Zara.
The other specialty, stuffed birds.

Some of the unlucky examples.

Back at the street exhibit, a display of old drug store medicines. Foot rot, yech.