I've been doing taxidermy for about a year on the side and I'm really enjoying it. Largely due to this forum. I work as a welder,fitter and rigger for a industrial contracting company. Our company has been hired by a museum to take down an elephant head mount off the wall and move it. I'm looking for any info that might be helpful. It's between 30 and 40 years old. It looks like it's made of plaster and just painted. I'm thinking it's hollow but theres two 3/4" allthreads coming out of the back ,kind of high, and going through the wall. The museum said 25 years ago when it was put up, the trunk and the tusks came seperate. There is a seam on the trunk but no pins or screws. The tusks looks like they slip in, maybe glued somehow. Were planning on trying it in one piece, setting up scaffolding, wrapping straps around it and lowering it with chainfalls. Maybe putting bubble wrap under the straps. Not sure of the weight. It's 9'6" tip of ear to tip of ear. The tusks are about 4' long. Any info or suggetions would be great.
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there should be a trap door of sorts on top of the head where a smallish person can go down inside the head itself. There you will find that there are threaded rods with nuts going from side to side through the ivory tusks holding them in. Before removing the threaded rods with nuts have someone support the ivory, remove the bolts and then slip them forward out of the head. The ears are removed in the same manner...usually with two threaded pipes coming out of the ear in bored through a wooden support of some kind. Remove the nuts and the ears will slip right off the head. The trunk has never come off of any elephant mount that I've seen......but I haven't seen them all mind you. You will have to support the mounted elephant head itself (forklift?) before removing the two all thread 3/4" rods you spoke of. After removing the tusks, the ears and then the rods the head is easily removed from the wall.