From Erin Heffernan at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "The structure of the competition is a bit like the Westminster dog show, except that these animals happen to be dead.
Subcategories divide some 550 entries into groups as specific as “Whitetail Deer Heads: Long/thick hair, open mouth” and “Turkeys, strutting.”
There are categories for animal rugs, fish, waterfowl and "interpretive taxidermy," featuring the more experimental work. Past winners include a dinosaur. This year there were two long-extinct prehistoric birds, a jolly beaver morphing into a wood log and a cougar blending into a rock in the shape of Texas."
Wendy Christensen, one of two women tasked with judging the small mammals, stands about an inch away from a beaver with a wide-open mouth.
"Now what is your story? Why are you yelling at me?" she asks the beaver. "I like there to be a clear emotion."
Christensen worked doing taxidermy for 35 years at the Milwaukee Public Museum and has a handful of world titles herself. She began learning the craft when she was 12 through a correspondence course.
She moves on to a bobcat. “Oh, is he soft,” she says, feeling the fur. She sticks her finger in the ears and gives them a tug. "Good ear connection."
She looks at the legs. "Muscle is bulged out all wrong."
She puts her hand under the tail and feels the cat's rear. "I know it's a little weird," she says as she feels around for the detail work. "I have to feel them up a bit."
