Washington ? Is it real?

That’s the question that taxidermist Paul Rhymer hears most from kids who visit the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, where he works.

Yes, it is real. No, there are no guts still inside. No, it won’t bite.

Taxidermy – preparing the skin of a dead animal so that it looks lifelike – is part art and part science.

Rhymer’s specimens are animals that have died in zoos or were hit by vehicles. In order to make a museum critter as scientifically accurate as possible, he needs to understand how an animal’s body looks and works.

It’s harder than you might think.

“Everyone knows what a penguin looks like, until they have to make one,” he says.

Penguins are part of Rhymer’s current project: the museum’s new Ocean Hall, which is to open in September.

He also is working on some birds for the new hall. “You can put a lot of expression in them,” he says, explaining why he loves making birds.

Rhymer, 45, started learning how to prepare dead animals when he was 8 by helping his father, who also was a taxidermist. After looking for a career in art, Rhymer found a way to combine his artistic talents with the skill of taxidermy.

Completing a job can take several hours to several months.

For birds, Rhymer starts with excelsior (a strawlike material) and wire for the legs, wings and neck. He wraps the excelsior until he has the shape he wants.

Preserving an animal’s skin or fur can be done in a variety of ways, including using chemicals such as borax.

“You are basically making (the animal) from the inside out,” he says.

Rhymer does a lot of research before he starts a project, so that the animal will look like it did in the wild. Working at the Smithsonian gives Rhymer access to scientists who are experts in whatever animals he is researching.

Every detail, from how an animal stands to the color of its eyes, must be perfect. Primates are especially complicated. “They are as individual-looking as you and I are,” Rhymer says.

If the Smithsonian is unable to find the right specimen for an exhibit, Rhymer will make a model of the animal. If he needs help, his wife, Carolyn, is a model-maker at the Smithsonian.

When he’s not making new pieces for exhibits, Rhymer restores older ones. Although he has worked for the Smithsonian for 23 years, there are many animals that have been in the museum’s collection a lot longer than that. Since some of them are now extinct, Rhymer makes sure they stay in good shape for people to see.

He pays special attention to his favorite animal, the pink fairy armadillo. “It’s just so weird,” he says. “How often do you have ‘pink’ in the name of an animal?”