I'm pretty sure this was the winner of the "Office Depot Eye Challenge" or some other competition where you are blindfolded and only given a highlighter, a sharpie, and a stressful time limit; because the level of realism achieved here is astounding.

I find taxidermy fascinating.

And over the years, on my website, I have been unable to resist sprinkling in a few taxidermy specimens I have encountered on my travels, ones where I feel that perhaps … “liberties” were taken, lol, if not outright missteps.

Okay, okay… I’m saying I’m amused by shitty taxidermy, alright? 😝

Moreover, I am fascinated by the fact that— as a wildlife photographer— I often spend absurd amounts of time waiting for an animal to turn a certain way or make a certain face… and then you have these taxidermists that can literally make an animal turn whichever way they want or have it make whatever face they so choose, but due to (a lack of skill? 🤨 or resources?) um, mitigating factors, they achieve something farcical or preposterous.

Or, in this case, supernatural.

The taxidermic leopard you see above looks as if someone just said “F*ck it, this is taking too long, I’ll just use this neon yellow highlighter for the eyes and be done with it already!”

It was on display at the International Mountain Museum in Pokhara, Nepal (and a fairly decent taxidermy specimen otherwise), but I can only assume that when it came time to touch up the eyes, they didn’t have access to the proper equipment and just made do with what they had on hand.

Namely, a yellow highlighter, which resulted in the paranormal, mesmerizing Super Leopard I present to you today.

This REAL leopard is just for reference— a photo I took years earlier in Botswana, Africa as it feasted on the carcass of a dead wildebeest.

I’m assuming it killed the wildebeest the old-fashioned way… and not with neon yellow lasers that it shot from its eyeballs.

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Read more about taxidermy HERE.