Amsterdam, New York

The Wildlife Sports and Educational Museum

This sprawling taxidermy collection celebrates the art and history of sport hunting.

Nestled in woody Upstate New York, the Wildlife Sports and Educational Museum displays hundreds of mounted animals right alongside the methods by which they were killed.

This impressively large museum is filled wall-to-wall with stuffed critters from the wilds of North America and beyond. From the wall holding over 100 mounted elk heads to the larger predators such as bears and cougars whose full bodies are forever frozen in a menacing pose. Wolves, fish, birds, lynx, and a number of other animals are on display in the gallery, showing the impressive variety of animals that can be targeted during a sporting trophy hunt. In addition to the native beasts, there are more exotic creatures as well such as lions, polar bears, and even a notorious two-headed cow.

Alongside the veritable zoo of preserved animals, there are also over 500 items from across the history of hunting, fishing, and trapping dating from Colonial times all the way up to the present. This part of the collection includes, bows, traps, arrows, and a number of other methods of putting down a wild animal.

The museum hopes to educate visitors about the history of hunting and fishing, but even those who are less interested in the history or the killing will likely enjoy the two-headed cow.