动物标本制作，怀一颗慈悲的心

A Kinder, Gentler Taxidermy

动物标本制作，怀一颗慈悲的心

If you visit Alison Raleigh at home, in Hoboken, N.J., one of the first things you’re likely to notice is all the taxidermy: There’s a deer head in the bathroom, a stuffed pheasant and crow on the mantel, a ram’s head in the study. She bought a lot of it on eBay. But some of it she made herself.

你要是去艾莉森·罗利(Alison Raleigh)在新泽西州霍波肯(Hoboken)的家里做客，首先会注意到的一件事，可能就是满屋子的标本：浴室里有一颗鹿头，壁炉架上摆着一只雉鸡和乌鸦的标本，书房里放着一颗公羊头。其中很多是她在eBay上买的，但有些则是她自己做的。

“I was collecting all this taxidermy,” said Ms. Raleigh, 40, a stay-at-home mother of two. “Then I thought, why can’t I just do it? I’m not squeamish.”

“我本来是在收藏标本，”罗利说，她今年40岁，全职在家带两个孩子，“后来我想，为什么不自己做呢?反正我也不是有洁癖的人。”

There are those who may say that do-it-yourself taxidermy is taking D.I.Y. just a little too far. But not Ms. Raleigh, and many others like her, who are learning this time-honored tradition in classes offered at a variety of venues across the country, including natural history museums, nature centers and even restaurants.

有些人可能会说，自己做标本，是把DIY的精神发扬得有点过火了。但是罗利和许多同道中人并不这么认为。他们正在参加培训班，学习这种经久不衰的传统手艺。全国各地、各式各样的场馆都在开设标本剥制培训班，包括自然历史博物馆、自然中心，甚至是餐馆。

And doing your own taxidermy, Ms. Raleigh was quick to add, is the only way you can make sure the animals are ethically sourced.

而且，罗利很快补充说，只有自己制作标本，才能确保制作标本的动物是通过人道方式取得的。

That’s right: For those who want to make sure the moose and deer mounted on their walls have been treated at least as humanely as the free-range cows slaughtered for their burgers, there is now ethical taxidermy.

没有错：对于自制标本的人而言，人道的标本剥制术是存在的。他们希望装饰在自家墙上的驼鹿和鹿，至少能够像汉堡供货商放养的牛一样，在生前得到人道的对待。

Mickey Alice Kwapis, 23, a self-taught taxidermy instructor in Cleveland, Ohio, is one of its proponents. The animals she uses — rabbits, squirrels, mice, guinea pigs — were not killed for art’s sake, she said. They were raised and painlessly euthanized to serve as food for reptiles and large cats. Ms. Kwapis gets them from a company called Rodent Pro, which supplies animals to pet stores and zoos.

23岁的米琪·爱丽丝·夸皮斯(Mickey Alice Kwapis)是一名自学成材的标本制作老师，住在俄亥俄州的克利夫兰(Cleveland)。她就是上述理念的支持者之一。她说自己所使用的动物——兔子、松鼠、老鼠、豚鼠，都不是以艺术的名义杀死的。它们是那种被饲养长大后安乐死，作为爬行动物和大型猫科动物食物的小动物。夸皮斯用于制作标本的动物，来自一家为宠物店和动物园供应动物的公司Rodent Pro。

Ms. Kwapis holds her classes in unlikely places like tattoo parlors and restaurants. “As long as you clean up afterward, there’s nothing to say you can’t hold a taxidermy class anywhere,” she said. “After all, a rabbit has less bacteria than a chicken.”

夸皮斯的开课地点，都在一些令人意想不到的场所，比如刺青店和餐馆。“只要你在事后搞好卫生，就没什么地方是不能开标本剥制课的，”她说，“毕竟，兔子体内的细菌还没有肉鸡多。”

In addition to teaching her students how to stuff the animals, Ms. Kwapis instructs them on how to prepare the meat for eating, although, she added, “I actually have a lot of vegans in my classes.”

除了教学生怎么剥制标本外，夸皮斯还会教他们怎样将剩余不用的肉做成菜，只不过，她补充道，“我其实有很多素食主义的学员。”

She also shows them how to preserve the organs in jars (if that aesthetic appeals to them) and how to clean the bones to make jewelry or grind them up for fertilizer. “Nothing goes to waste,” she said.

她还会跟他们展示，如何将器官保存在罐子里(前提是他们能够接受这样的美学);如何将骨头清洁干净，做成饰品，或者磨成骨粉，用作肥料。“没有一样东西会被浪费。”她说。

Ms. Raleigh, who learned taxidermy earlier this year in classes held at the Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn, takes a similar approach. Like Ms. Kwapis, she gets her animals from reptile feed companies. And she makes use of the entire animal, feeing the innards of the mice she uses in her mounts to her dog.

罗利也采用了类似的方法。今年早些时候，她在布鲁克林病理解剖博物馆(Morbid Anatomy Museum)学会了标本剥制术。和夸皮斯一样，她也是从爬行动物饲料公司那里获得用于制作标本的动物的。而且，她会将动物的全身加以利用，她将制作老鼠标本剩下的内脏喂给了自己家的狗。

“My dog is on a raw-food diet,” she said.

“我家的狗现在吃生食了。”她说。

What exactly constitutes ethics when it comes to taxidermy, however, depends on whom you consult. Allis Markham, 31, sees it a little differently.

然而，就制作标本而言，究竟怎样做才称得上是道德的，不同的人有不同看法。31岁的爱丽丝·马克汉姆(Allis Markham)在这个问题上和别人稍有分歧。

“Using animals killed for pet food is the same to me as factory farming,” said Ms. Markham, an assistant in the taxidermy department at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles and owner of Prey Taxidermy, which creates mounts for Hollywood productions and offers how-to courses. “Just like the meat I eat, the animals I use for my taxidermy can’t have been raised in an industrial way.”

“对我来说，把作为宠物饲料杀死的动物拿来做标本，跟工厂化饲养是一回事。”马克汉姆说。她在洛杉矶自然历史博物馆(Natural History Museum)的动物标本部做助理，也是“标本”(Prey Taxidermy)的所有者。这家工作室为好莱坞影片提供剥制标本，并开设培训课程。“就跟我吃的肉一样，我用来做标本的动物也不能是通过工业化方式饲养出来的。”

Ms. Markham gets animals for her classes — typically starlings, quails, squirrels, ducklings and raccoons — from pest control operators who would otherwise have disposed of them in a landfill or from game breeders after the animals have died a natural death. The larger animals she uses in her film work, like deer and peacocks, were either killed by hunters for food or died of natural causes in captivity.

马克汉姆教课所用的动物，通常是已经自然死亡的椋鸟、鹌鹑、松鼠、小鸭和浣熊，其来源有两个：一是病虫害防治工作者那里的死动物。若不被马克汉姆收走，它们也会被丢弃到垃圾场;二是野生动物饲养者。而她在影视作品中使用的体型较大的动物——比如鹿和孔雀，要么是被猎人猎杀的，要么是在圈养过程中自然死亡的。

“There’s no shortage of invasive species killed for abatement or animals that died naturally,” Ms. Markham said.

“为了生态平衡而被猎杀的入侵物种以及自然死亡的动物，是源源不断的。”马克汉姆说。

But she draws the line at stuffing people’s departed pets. “I’m not going to be able to put life back in its eyes the way the owner knew and loved it,” she said.

但是，将别人过世的宠物做成标本，就超越了她的底限。“要让这些宠物的眼神回复它们主人曾经熟悉和爱怜的生动模样，对此我无能为力。”她说。

Ms. Markham has decorated her own home with some 30 mounts, including a black bear, impala, antelope and jackal buzzard. Her husband, David Iserson, a writer who has worked on “Mad Men” and “Saturday Night Live,” has been “incredibly supportive of my work,” she said. “And incredibly grossed out.”

马克汉姆已经在家里装饰了30多个标本，包括一头黑熊、一只黑斑羚、一只羚羊、一只暗棕鵟。她的丈夫戴维·伊泽森(David Iserson)曾参与《广告狂人》(Mad Men)和《周六夜现场》(Saturday Night Live)的创作，他一直“对我的工作表现出难以置信的支持，”她说，“以及难以置信的厌恶。”

While ethical codes may vary, most taxidermy classes are popular enough to have waiting lists. Students and instructors tend to be women in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Men take the classes as well, instructors say, but usually with a girlfriend or spouse.

虽然秉承的人道准则可能有所不同，但大多数标本制作培训课都很有人气，还有人在排队候补。学生和老师往往都是二十几到四十几岁的女性。培训者说，也有男性学员报名，但通常都是和女友或伴侣一起来。

“I get a lot of lawyers,” Ms. Kwapis said. “I don’t know what that means.”

“我的学员当中有很多律师，”夸皮斯说，“我也不知道这意味着什么。”

Courses can cost $100 to $500 (including supplies) and take several hours, which may be spread over a couple of days. Lessons on skinning, disemboweling, wiring the animal and making a mold are followed by lots of grooming and preening using tweezers and blow dryers, to get the animal looking as fresh and lifelike as possible.

课程培训费可达100至500美元(约合人民币612至3062元)(包括材料费)，学时要持续好几个小时，可能会分几天进行。课程涉及剥皮、去除内脏、为动物支架和制模，此后，就需要学员用镊子和吹风机在整形上花费大量功夫了，以使标本尽可能显得栩栩如生。

“It’s kind of like sculpture, kind of like painting, almost like hairdressing, almost like sewing,” said Nina Masuda, 36, a graphic designer in Los Angeles who has taken three classes with Ms. Markham, in which she stuffed a starling, a quail and a squirrel. “I thought it would be all science-y, and I’m, like, fluffing up this bird’s hair, trying to give it some volume.”

“这有点像雕塑，又有点像作画，几乎接近美发，又十分接近缝纫。”36岁的妮娜·增田(Nina Masuda)说。她是洛杉矶的一名平面设计师，在马克汉姆那里上过三堂课，课上制作过三个标本——一只椋鸟、一只鹌鹑和一只松鼠。“我本以为它会带有很强的科学色彩，结果我所做的却像是，一直在蓬松这只鸟头上的羽毛，试图让它的毛量显得多一些。”

Ms. Masuda’s mounts have been naturalistic, but students in other taxidermy classes often create anthropomorphic pieces: mice sipping tea from tiny cups, say, or a rabbit strumming a tiny guitar. And then there are the so-called rogue creations, like “Game of Thrones"-inspired three-eyed ravens, or bunnies with squid tentacles.

增田的标本走的是自然主义路线;而其他培训课学员往往会创作出拟人化的作品：比如，用小巧的杯子喝茶的老鼠，或是弹着小吉他的兔子。还有一些所谓的恶作剧作品，比如受《权力的游戏》(Game of Thrones)启发而做出的三眼乌鸦，或是长着乌贼触手的兔子。

Ms. Raleigh, in Hoboken, has made one mouse with quail wings and another wearing little clogs and drinking a glass of wine; she has also created a tableau of two mice embracing on a heart-shaped pedestal, as a present for her husband.

霍波肯的罗利给一只老鼠配上了鹌鹑翅膀，给另一只穿上了小木屐，让它做出喝葡萄酒的样子;她还为两只老鼠做了一个舞台造型，让它们在一个心形基座上拥抱，然后将这件作品作为礼物送给了丈夫。

“He said it was the most romantic gift he’d ever gotten,” she said.

“他说，那是他收到的最浪漫的礼物。”她说。

Her friends’ reactions, however, have been mixed.

然而，她朋友的反应就各不相同了。

“Half of them say: ‘Oh, that is so disgusting. How can you do that?’ And the other half say: ‘Neat! Can do you make one for me?’ ”

“有半数的人说：‘噢，那好恶心啊。你怎么能做这个?’还有一半人说：‘酷毙了!你能不能给我做一个?’”

But Ms. Raleigh’s new hobby is not as odd or macabre as some of her friends might think. In fact, there’s a historical precedent, said Brian Schmidt, a taxidermist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.

但是罗利的新爱好并不像她有些朋友所想的那么怪异，或者恐怖。事实上，据就职于华盛顿史密森学会(Smithsonian Institution)的标本制作师布莱恩·施密特(Brian Schmidt)说，这在历史上是有先例的。

“Back in Victorian times, people, especially women, used to do a lot of taxidermy, putting it under glass domes or in quilts,” Mr. Schmidt said. “So I guess we’ve come full circle.”

“早在维多利亚时代，人们(尤其是女人)就曾制作过大量标本，把它们放进钟形玻璃罩，或收藏在被单下面。”施密特说，“所以我猜，我们又回到了原点。”

Then and now, part of the appeal may be the illusion of cheating death, said Margot Magpie, an instructor at an ethical taxidermy studio in London called Of Corpse!, who sometimes teaches at the Morbid Anatomy Museum.

无论在当时还是现在，标本的魅力或许部分在于，它给人一种虽死犹生的错觉。伦敦一家人道标本剥制工作室Of Corpse!的培训师玛格·“喜鹊”(Margot Magpie)如是说。她偶尔也会在病理解剖博物馆里授课。

“Making something that’s dead look alive again helps some people come to terms with death,” said Ms. Magpie, 31.

“让死去的动物看起来就像重获新生，这样做能够帮助一些人接受死亡。”31岁的“喜鹊”说。