An animal lover with no room for real pets has filled his tiny one-bedroom flat with a host of exotic taxidermy, resin and huge cardboard cutout creatures instead.
Since his partner passed away five years ago, Jim Carmichael, has spent more than £2,000 on his menagerie, which includes an enormous six-foot-tall grizzly bear, two life-sized cardboard cutout tigers, a lion and an eight-foot resin alligator ready to greet guests in the hallway of his modest seaside flat.
Jim, a voluntary worker, started collecting taxidermy and resin animals just over four years ago but after struggling to squeeze anything else into his home, has since turned to cardboard cutouts to continue with his bizarre pastime.
The 50-year-old from Scarborough in North Yorkshire said: ‘I can’t fit anything else in my living room now, it’s a bit overcrowded.
‘Even if I wanted more taxidermy I couldn’t.
Jim Carmichael’s collection of taxidermy in his one-bedroom Scarborough home includes a wildebeest and an 11-point highland stag
The eight-foot resin alligator with which Mr Carmichael is ‘wrestling’ in this photograph is only one of several his £2,000 collection
‘I do like to keep the flat nice and clean though.
‘I just love having them around, every time I leave the house I go around closing all the windows and say goodbye to them all. I tell them to behave themselves.
‘I speak to them all, especially when I’m cleaning them and I’ve named them all too.
‘I might live alone but it certainly doesn’t feel like it.
After he ran out of room for more stuffed animals, volunteer worker MR Carmichael, 50, started collecting cardboard cut-outs including this 6ft grizzly bear
‘People come in and usually say ‘Oh my Lord’ even the guys who deliver my food shopping think it’s hilarious.
‘I ask them if they want to come in and have a look and they’re never sure.
‘They’re quite expensive to buy, I’ve had to sacrifice things and save up quite a lot.
‘It’s funny really as I have a severe phobia of spiders, rats and snakes. I would freak out if I found a spider in the bath, so people are surprised when they see all the animals. They think it’s quite strange.
‘My most recent purchase is a cardboard grizzly bear which I called Hercules and a lion called Samson.
‘I really want another grizzly to stand at the front door in the hallway but I honestly might have to stop now though as I’m running out of space.’
His full collection of taxidermy includes: a fox, a raccoon, a stoat with a bluebird, a wildebeest, an 11-point highland stag, a roe deer, a pygmy goat, a four-foot crocodile, two tawny owls, and a swan
He also has a six-foot cardboard cut-out grizzly bear – called Hercules – an eight foot resin alligator called Rocky, a resin baby rhino, two life-sized cardboard cut-out tigers and a life-sized cardboard lion called Samson
Some of the taxidermy animals are stuff in full, others including this wildebeest and a stag are traditional wall-mounted heads
He has spent more than £2,000 on his collection since his partner died five years ago
He said he would love to heave a real pet, like a German Shepherd, but ‘I would worry they would be scared by all of the other animals’
Mr Carmichael said: ‘I just love having them around, every time I leave the house I go around closing all the windows and say goodbye to them all. I might live alone but it certainly doesn’t feel like it’
Jim has built up his collection by saving up and visiting local antique shops as well as ordering his cardboard animals from ‘Personalised Cardboard Cutouts’ based in Stevenage.
He said: ‘It can be a great conversation starter. Either that or people are speechless and have no idea what to say.
‘I would love to have a real pet, I love dogs, particularly German Shepherds but I just can’t risk it.
‘I would worry they would be scared by all of the other animals or I would return home one day and they would have wrecked them all. I’d be devastated.’
His full collection of taxidermy includes: a fox, a raccoon, a stoat with a bluebird, a wildebeest, an 11-point highland stag, a roe deer, a pygmy goat, a four-foot crocodile, two tawny owls, and a swan.
He also has a six-foot cardboard cut-out grizzly bear – called Hercules – an eight foot resin alligator called Rocky, a resin baby rhino, two life-sized cardboard cut-out tigers and a life-sized cardboard lion called Samson.