Ananova:

A US artist and inventor has combined IT and taxidermy to create a computer housed in a dead beaver.

Kasey McMahon, 34, from Los Angeles, spent three months creating his Compubeaver, reports Metro News.

And, in separate but related news, two more US inventors created a computer mouse housed in a real mouse.

Ms McMahon said of her Compubeaver: "I started thinking about the most ridiculous thing to put a computer into and decided it had to be a beaver.

"It looks at how nature relates to technology."

She bought the beaver ready-stuffed, before cutting out the foam insides with an electric kitchen knife. Once she had cut space for the computer tower, she reinforced it with fibreglass.

Meanwhile, biologist Christy Canida and environmental studies graduate Noah Weinsrein took the concept of a computer 'mouse' to its natural limit.

Both contribute to the Instructables website - which describes how to make similarly odd creations - and made the mouse using the skin of a real rodent bought dead from a US pet shop.