Like many sportsmen, Bob Parkey often felt mixed elation and regret at the end of a successful hunt. "I thought there should be more to it," he says. "The animals are so beautiful that I wanted something more lasting than memories."
About 15 years ago Parkey began dabbling in taxidermy as a way to make those memories permanent. At first he worked only on his own game and fish mounts and considered it a hobby, nothing more. Gradually, he began doing mounts for friends, who complimented him on his skill and encouraged him to go farther with it.
In 1986 he enrolled in an intensive seminar in advanced skills from Jim Dreves, owner of Bay West Taxidermy in Traverse City, a seminar designed to raise him above amateur status and put him in business as a professional taxidermist.
That same year, Parkey joined the International Guild of Taxidermists and entered his first professional competition. Going head-to-head with more than 200 of the best taxidermists in the world, Parkey's pedestal mount of a walleye twisting away with a Rapala Countdown in its mouth took a first-place ribbon. In the following years, in competitions at both the international and state levels, his mounts of deer, bobcats, and grouse took numerous awards. After only three years of serious taxidermy, Bob Parkey became a world-class contender.
According to Ann Batten, business director of the International Guild of Taxidermy, "Young, skilled taxidermists like Bob Parkey represent the future of taxidermy. "It's their intense interest in the field that lifts them above the competition."
The IGT, with over 700 members representing countries such as the U.S., Canada, Germany, Australia, Japan, Ireland, Sweden, and Norway, was begun with the purpose of upholding professional standards of taxidermy. Annual competitions are an important tool in achieving that goal. Judges--themselves advanced taxidermists--critique each piece's strengths and weaknesses, giving competitors an opportunity to grow in their skills whether they win recognition themselves. Six categories are open to judging: fish, birds, mammals, game heads, reptiles, and reproductions (such as bird carvings and replicas of game fish).
Competition also serves as criteria for certification by the IGT. Points are awarded for first-place ribbons (three points), second-place ribbons (two points), and third-place ribbons (one point). Once an IGT member has compiled four points he can become certified; if he reaches certification in four of the six categories he can achieve Master Taxidermist status.
To the unpracticed eye a deer mount is just a deer mount. Spend some time talking to Bob Parkey, however, and you begin to realize just how much you've been missing. He runs his finger along the muscles and bone structure painstakingly reproduced under the deer's coat and explains that an early season animal like this, an eight-point Michigan buck that won a second place ribbon in IGT competition in 1987, can be a real challenge.
The short hair and relatively light coat don't cover flaws and imprecise muscle and bone reproduction the way a later, more heavily coated deer will. He points at the nearly unnoticed folds of skin at the base of the buck's neck.
"This spot can create a lot of trouble for a taxidermist," he says. "That's why many of them just don't bother with it. They probably figure nobody's going to notice anyway. But it's these realistic details that are important to judges in competition. And I think they're important to our clients as well."
That attention to detail gives Parkey's mounts life-like quality. His ruffed grouse looks ready to launch into flight, his bobcat seems on the verge of standing, stretching languidly, and stalking away into the shadows.
To help reach such a level of realism Parkey studies books and photographs, learning as much as possible about the habits and life histories of wildlife. Membership in taxidermy associations is a great help too, he says, because of seminars, newsletters, magazines, and contact with other taxidermists--all excellent ways to keep up with new methods and techniques. He also collects photographs from outdoor magazines, storing them in a "morgue" the way a wildlife artist does. Most important, he spends as much time as possible in the field with his camera.
"You've got to get out and study live animals," he says. "They're the best reference you can get."
Bob Parkey, Jim Dreves, and the many other fine taxidermists would like to see you get more pleasure out of your hunting and fishing. What's the best way to prepare your trophy fish and game for mounting? Follow the procedures below to prepare your trophies for preservations:
1. Fish should be frozen, uncleaned and whole, as quickly as possible. Double wrap them in plastic followed by a covering of paper, taking care not to pierce the wrapping with the sharp spines of fish like walleyes, perch, and bluegills.
Dreves points out that there are at least 17 ways to paint a walleye and 50 ways to paint a rainbow trout, depending on where and when they were caught, so if you want a custom paint job it's important to take color photos of your fish as soon as possible after catching them.
2. Game birds such as ducks, pheasants, grouse, and woodcock should be slipped into a nylon pantyhose to hold their feathers in place, then wrapped carefully in paper (newspaper is fine), taped, and frozen whole.
3. Big game hunters should instruct their butchers not to make any cuts ahead of the front shoulder. A full-shoulder mount should not have seams and stitches--they may stretch open in time. Never salt the hide; a taxidermist will take care of salting and the other stages of curing.
Copyright (c) 1996 Jerry Dennis. All rights reserved.