Growing up in a cramped Miami apartment, Divya Anantharaman would spend hours perched by the kitchen window, gazing at the birds passing by. Nature was mesmerizing, but zoo tickets were expensive, so Mx. Anantharaman, who uses the pronouns they and she, would frequent free museum days, gawking at the dioramas filled with creatures — owls, elephants, tigers — they’d never before seen in real life. A few years later, while working in fashion, they started taking taxidermy classes. “I’m not either of those things.”They opened Gotham Taxidermy in 2015, determined to diversify the field.

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Persons: Divya Anantharaman, gawking, — they’d, Anantharaman, ”, “ I’m, Gotham Taxidermy, Tiffany, Neil Patrick Harris, David Burtka Organizations: Wood, Tiffany & Company Locations: Miami, New York City, Gotham, Green