PAMPLONA, Spain — The joys and pleasures of bullfighting are fleeting, corporeal and often ambiguous. José Luis Martín Moro tries to materialize them, to preserve them forever.

Martín Moro is a taxidermist, one of the best in all of Spain. He travels the country each summer taking inventory and seeking clients wherever bulls are ritualistically killed for entertainment. He has won acclaim for the hyper-realism of his creations, the way he imbues them with emotion. For the past two years, he has served here as the taxidermist for the festival of San Fermín, in a role as vital as it is unsung.

“I think I have reached the pinnacle of my career,” he said. “What I don’t know is how long this will last.”

The popularity of bullfighting — a sport, an art form or a travesty, depending on whom one asks — has waned for decades. Animal rights activists denounce it as cruel. Much of the public in Spain has lost interest in it.