Taxidermist who helped create Hedwig in Harry Potter and made roller-skating alpaca says ‘I’ll work until I’m stuffed’

A taxidermist known as “The Stuffa”, who went from stuffing dead pigeons in his mother’s garden shed to helping create Hedwig in the Harry Potter films and making a roller-skating alpaca, has said he will carry on working with animals until he is “stuffed”.

Simon Wilson, 60, said his interest in taxidermy first developed when he was just nine years old, as he loved visiting zoos and The Natural History Museum.

The Leighton Buzzard resident used to joke and say: “I’d love to be a taxidermist”, but he never thought his childhood dream would become a reality.

“I remember for my CSE English, you had to do a practical [assessment] and I took some stuffed birds in,” Simon told PA Real Life.

Simon bought a book and was taught by his father’s foreman’s son, who was a taxidermist, and he began practising at the age of nine by stuffing dead pigeons in his mother’s garden shed.

He has taxidermied animals ranging from a hummingbird the size of a “bumblebee” to a giraffe, lion, and bison, and his most unusual projects include a roller-skating alpaca, a bear sat in a telephone box on the toilet, and a crocodile holding a tea tray – but this is all “normal” for Simon.

“I’ve been lucky to do my hobby as a living all my life, travel the world, get paid for it, learn a lot about animals you’d never learn about, and have all this [my workshop],” he said.

“I’m still travelling the world – I’ve been to some amazing places – and I’m currently working on projects for Chinese museums.

“I’ve done the smallest bird in the world to the largest bird in the world – a hummingbird which is tiny, like a bumblebee, and there’s an ostrich over there.

Simon’s curiosity for taxidermy was sparked by visiting museums, watching birds in his garden, and seeing his father, an artist, draw various feathered creatures while he was growing up.

However, it was not until he saw his father’s art teacher’s home collection, which included a mammoth’s tooth and a large polar bear rug, that his taxidermy journey truly began.

After being taught how to “stuff (his) first bird” by his father’s foreman’s son, aged nine, he then progressed to small mammals – and his first big taxidermy project was a deer.

The father-of-two then worked as an animal handler for many years, training “cats, dogs, snakes, big cats, and deer”, and he set up his business, Animatronic Animals, in 1987.

He has worked on films such as Tomb Raider, where “you might be working with Angelina Jolie, throwing chickens between her legs as she gets off a motorbike”, and the Harry Potter series.

Simon helped the film crew with Hedwig’s characterisation and has made his own animatronics using a stuffed cow, reindeer, and lion, and “a stuffed fox and a bit of fishing line”.

“For Hedwig, they had animatronic versions of each animal, so I would get them a stuffed snowy owl, and their animatronics people would use the feathers to make models,” he said.

Simon said his most famous creation is the ‘Floating Giraffe’ at Aynhoe Park in Oxfordshire, which was sold at auction for approximately £100,000, and he helped create a ‘Birds of Paradise’ dress with Alexander McQueen, worn by singer FKA Twigs, along with other fashion pieces.

Simon said he will take on projects others say are impossible, and he has many quirky stories from his time as a taxidermist, including one involving a large male lion.

“We put him in the car, I thought nothing of it, and I was driving back to the workshop,” Simon explained.

The grandfather-of-two sources animals which have died from natural causes from zoos and farms, and depending on the size, his taxidermy creations can take up to several weeks.

Simon’s main income is generated from working in the film industry, with museums, and by renting pieces out – for which he can charge several hundred pounds per week.

He is going to continue working on taxidermy projects for the foreseeable future, adding: “It’s nice to bring something back to life, it’s not wasted.”

To find out more about Simon and his work, search @simon_the_stuffa on Instagram or visit his website here: animatronicanimals.com/index.html.