for National Geographic News David Leggett's freezer is crammed
with dead barn owls. One of Britain's most threatened birds of
prey, there's more than 60 ghostly corpses waiting to be stuffed
for display. It's a disturbing sight, yet there's no suggestion
of any skullduggery, just further evidence that the barn owl
(Tyto alba) is gradually being wiped out by Britain's busy
roads. Ironically, these deaths are helping to rehabilitate a
profession once associated with the deliberate slaughter of
endangered wildlife. By the 1880s almost every town and village
had a professional taxidermist. Obsessive Victorian collectors
who wanted Britain's rarest and most beautiful animals killed
for their elaborate cabinet displays fueled trade especially.
Owls and other raptors were highly prized. This urge to shoot
and stuff the contents of the countryside began to wane after
the First World War. Bird taxidermy fell further out of fashion
as the conservation movement gained momentum. Yet today
taxidermy is back in vogue. Dav