Dead, and still very much alive

Five-year-old Zhang Yucheng, the youngest competitor in the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Fifth China Taxidermy Championships, loves insects and his entry won him an award.

"It is a mantis with a horsehair worm emerging from its body by a lakeside," Yucheng says, adding that the tableau took him a month to finish.

"One of the whiskers was broken, so I replaced it with one of my mother's hairs."

Although he has hundreds of insect specimens at home, Yucheng was amazed by the 400-odd pieces submitted for consideration by taxidermists and enthusiasts from all over the country. The exhibition opened on Nov 14 at the National Zoological Museum of China and will run until Feb 25.

"Many of contest entries are lifelike representations. The subjects have been preserved and staged to look as though they are still alive, with alert facial expressions," Zhang Jinshuo, deputy director of the museum, says.

The competition is organized by the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the China Zoological Society, the Chinese Association of Natural Science Museums and the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens, with support from the China Wildlife Conservation Association.

Mammals, insects and birds like the kingfisher, fill the sprawling hall in a frozen stampede. In one corner, a zebra mother seems to be looking at a newborn foal, and elsewhere, a wolf standing over a dead roe deer bares its teeth as a giant bear prepares to fight for it.