As hunting season winds down, a Coaldale, Alta., taxidermy studio is gearing up for a busy November.
Top Notch Taxidermy is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year under family trio Kevin and Kelly Wiebe and their son Levi, who take in more than half their work for the year during the fall.
“The rest of the year is a steady grind,” Levi said. “But the fall is when we take in probably 60 to 70 per cent of our projects.”
Those projects include preserving animals native to Canada like moose, deer, caribou, elk and sheep, as well as exotic animals from “across the pond” such as Africa.
Prices can range from several hundred dollars to tens of thousands.
Many of their clientele are looking to have their hunting experience immortalized after using the game for food and other purposes.
“Sometimes it’s not even the biggest deer that they want to mount: it’s one that they got with their grandpa or their first deer that means a lot to them, stuff like that,” Levi said.
“(Taxidermy) has come so far, and it’s very popular among the new hunters,” Kevin added.
An eye for detail, supplies and patience is needed to complete the largely unfamiliar process.
“The hide goes around (a foam form) with the horns and all that stuff, and glass eyes go into it. Ear liners go inside the (ears) and then we try to bring that animal back to life,” Levi said.
“There’s fine finishing work that needs to be done, and airbrushing with an airbrush,” he continued.
“Habitats, too, is a big thing. That’s one of our strengths, I think.”
In Lethbridge, The Art of Taxidermy shop is also staying busy with a slightly different type of clientele.
“You don’t have to be a hunter to love taxidermy,” said owner Ben Khorshidnam. “Eighty per cent of my work is being brought in by people who are not even hunters.”
Khorshidnam started out doing taxidermy as a hobby, but it soon evolved into his profession.
He specializes in birds, having won several national awards in 2017. Many of the birds he receives come from roadkill, electrocution, and windmill accidents.
“As long as I live I will be mounting birds,” he said.
“Basically we are only dealing with the skin of the bird. The whole carcass — everything that is perishable — is gone,” he explained. “A lot of people think that we stuff them and I always try to correct them: we only stuff the turkeys for Christmas.”
With nearly 13 years of experience in his current shop, Khorshidnam doesn’t expect the interest in the art to slow down anytime soon.
“Alberta is a very engaged province as far as I’ve realized — engaged with wildlife — and people have a sincere appreciation here,” he said.
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