One only has to go as far as your local Cabelas or Bass Pro shop to know that taxidermy is not only alive and well, but a thriving career field.  With big game hunters like Ted Nugent and cable network channels like verses and outdoor network bring this sport to wider audiences than ever taxidermy is a career for today.  With so many restaurants, specialty stores, and companies all looking for eye catching mounts more taxidermist will be needed to fill the demand for these monuments to hunters and their worthy game.

So, where do you get started if taxidermy sounds like a career for you?  The first thing you might choose to do would be take a trip to your local taxidermist and ask them about their trade.  Where did they learn their trade?  Are they looking for an apprentice?  See if they might steer you in the right direction or offer you some words of wisdom.  The worse that could happen is they would be of no help, but you would be out no more than some of your time.  If you get lucky and strike up a friendship, you might find your mentor, future boss, business partner or the person who is going to teach you what they know, then they sell you their business.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  This is the easiest and cheapest starting place for someone who wants to pursue this career.

What if you don't have any local taxidermist or you meet them and they are not helpful?  Taxidermy is a career for today and so where better to start your career than on the world wide web.  Try looking at a website like Taxidermy http://www.taxidermy.net/learn/schools1.html  This website lists schools around the nation, workshops, conventions, magazines, suppliers, and associations that can all provide a starting place for a budding taxidermist.  This website can give you the resources to not only start your career, but progress and grow through out your career.

Perhaps you want to get started soon, you can't leave your job to travel to a school and you have limited resources.  There is still an options for you.  http://www.learn-taxidermy.com/4_video_course.htm  The learn Taxidermy website has a beginner 4 dvd set that features complete taxidermy instruction for deer, large mouth bass, squirrel, and wood duck.  This dvd package is $69.95 with free shipping.  This would provide an excellent way for you to try your hand at this vocation.  It also would be a nice option for someone wanting create their own mounts in the comfort of their own home.  It could create a hobby to shared with your children.  The pride you can have the the money you can save in creating your own mounts makes it well worth $69.95 to try your hand at this art form.

Not a DVD person?  Looking for a book on the subject instead?  Head to your local library and have your librarian help your find one of the hundreds of books available on this topic.  Want to find the right book for your in the comfort of your own home?  Go to Amazon and look over their 518 books on taxidermy.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_i_0?rh=i:stripbooks,k:taxidermy&keywords=taxidermy&ie=UTF8&qid=1267235191  On Amazon you can read reviews from people who have read the books, so you get real peoples opinions of the book before you buy it.  You can even read the first few pages of many books, read the contents, the front cover, the back cover, and the index.  If there is a book on taxidermy that will meet your needs and your style of learning, then it will be on Amazon.  They pride themselves on having the widest selection of new, used, out of print and collectors books any where.