How To Create A Real-Life Rabbit-Duck Illusion

It’s a venerable optical illusion, one of my favorites: look at it one way and it’s a rabbit, look another and it’s a duck. Here some crafty taxidermist has recreated the effect in real life; although I question his methods.

Here’s the illusion as first conceived by Joseph Jastrow that first appeared in Harper’s Weekly in :

The delicately balanced ambiguity of the image, the neutral positioning of the eye; it’s an ingeniously crafted portrait that appears to be two things at once.

That real life hybrid above, though? That really is two things—a duck bill united in unholy taxidermy with the back of a rabbit head. Creepy… but effective.

So how do you create a famous optical illusion in real life? You cheat, and do a darn good job of it. [Forgetomori via BoingBoing]