The girl who breathes life back into some old bones
Chantal Taylor has a graveyard of animal bones.
The 9-year-old isn’t interested in collecting dolls, stickers or toy cars – she’s interested in all things dead.
In the family’s Cambridge home there are dead birds in the freezer, a bat on the wall, a dead frog in her closet and an assortment of animal bones scattered throughout the house. What can’t fit in the house is stored away in the shed.
There’s also a life-size cow skeleton in the lounge.
Taylor has been mesmerised by bones since she can remember and found the bones last year while exploring her grandmother’s farm in Hawke’s Bay.
She and her dad spent three months assembling the 207 bovine bones to complete the skeleton named ‘‘Mrs Cow’’.
‘‘I don’t know why I like collecting bones, but I’ve been interested in bones since I was a toddler,’’ Taylor said.
‘‘The ribs and spine were in a massive pile in the grass, but all the smaller bones were scattered around a paddock.
‘‘I don’t have a favourite bone, but I like skulls a lot – I’ve never seen a human skull though.’’
Chantal’s mum Nadine Taylor said with the help of sister Lucia and dad Will, Chantal researched online and in textbooks how to assemble what bones where.
The 1.5m cow has been bolted to a frame and has metal rods going through each piece with ‘‘super, super strong glue’’.
‘‘My husband is an engineer so he made the frame and worked on it with Chantal, so I guess it attracted my husband’s way of thinking as well – building something and putting it back together like a puzzle,’’ Nadine said.
Mrs Cow has since visited Chantal’s classmates at Hautapu School and sits in the lounge like a prized ornament.
‘‘For Christmas Mrs Cow was our Christmas tree. We put decorations and lights on it,’’ Chantal said.
‘‘We even put a light inside its eye and had all our presents under it.’’
Chantal being eager to assemble cow bones didn’t come as a surprise, Nadine Taylor said.
‘‘We’re used to it because she’s been into bones ever since we can pretty much remember.
‘‘She’s always been a collector so she’s collected lot of stuff and whenever she does get something she gets quite fixated on it, but this is the first time she’s wanted to assemble a whole animal.’’
While taxidermy or archaeology might seem like an ideal future career, Chantal said she wants to be a veterinary nurse.
‘‘I want cat bones next. I’m going to Hawke’s Bay next week and they’ve got a cat trap there. They’ve been catching lots of wild cats, so hopefully there’s a dead one while I’m there and I can boil it for its bones.’’
Chantal is now onto the new life-size skeleton called ‘‘Mrs Sheep’’.
‘‘I don’t know why I like collecting bones, but I’ve been interested in bones since I was a toddler.’’