What you can do in the woods to help your taxidermist

If you haven’t made it to over to the Greater Susquehanna Valley’s newest gastro-brew pub-family gathering place known as the Rusty Rail in Mifflinburg, Pa., you and your family need to get there soon.
Beyond the food, drink and family-friendly atmosphere, it is Rusty Rail’s taxidermy display that most impressed me and reminded me of what’s in Penn’s Woods.
The owners, the Paul family, are well-known outdoors enthusiasts. On the pub’s second floor there are enough taxidermy displays, the trophies of the elder Paul John’s hunts that you could easily imagine that you had arrived in the Smithsonian’s “Hall of the Wilds.”
You can see many impressive mounts of white tail deer, elk, caribou, turkeys and even some exotic African beasts.
Taxidermy is the practice of creating lifelike representations of animals and fish, by the use of their preserved and prepared skins stretched over various supporting structures.
One of the practitioners of this art form who has most impressed me over the years is Curt Zaring of Liverpool.
Given that Pennsylvania’s archery whitetail deer season opened last weekend, Zaring passed along a few very helpful tips that you would be wise to heed:
• Once you bag your trophy, be careful with it. This is particularly true with deer. Try to avoid dragging your deer and damaging its head or chest.
• During early season hunts when the temperatures can be in the 70- and 80-degree range, it’s critical to remove the animal’s hide as quickly as possible to slow the natural decomposition process.
• Warmth and heat can cause bacteria to grow quickly even in freshly-killed game and fish. Try to get your trophy chilled down as soon as possible. Then wrap the skin or carcass in plastic and place it in a freezer. Once it’s frozen and stabilized then take it to your favorite taxidermist.
One of the pieces of sage-like advice that Curt Zaring mentioned to me that I thought would be helpful to pass along was this:
“Remember, animals live in nature and by and large live a tough life. They routinely face life-and-death situations that frequently cause them to get nicks, blemishes, scars and other imperfections. If you’re looking for a perfect mount, remember that taxidermists can really only work with the material that nature provides.”
In other words, while nearly all taxidermists are artists and perfectionists, it might be impossible for him or her to make every mount look just like the majestic pictures that you might have seen in a picture book.
It’s the imperfections in your trophies that make them most interesting.
I remember seeing a ringneck mount that a friend of mine had that was very unusual. Rather than a solid white band around this bird’s throat, there was a band that resembled a line of dashes. We had many discussions about this trophy as well as the biology and environment that might have caused the natural anomaly to occur.
If you would like to check out Zaring’s artistry and even see his work over the past 30 years, please visit his shop outside of Liverpool on Route 235. These visits are by appointment only and you should call him at (717) 444-2005 before stopping down.
Also, please take a look on his Facebook page or on the web at www.zaringtaxidermy.com. He also has quite a few mounts that you can see at the Base Camp Outfitters in Newport.
A couple other places to check out impressive taxidermy displays in our Valley are the Union County Sportsmen’s Club in Weikert and at Hilsher’s General Store in Port Trevorton.
It is said that “art is in the eye of the beholder.”
For some folks, taxidermy is pure art and for others it’s simply not their “cup of tea.” Either way, the practice of taxidermy has evolved greatly since its 15th century roots when rudimentary and primitive processes were used to create museum pieces.
Today, taxidermy involves high-tech tools that result in extremely lifelike poses and scenes that create entire natural-looking habitats.
By working with local taxidermists, such as Curt Zaring, you can have a real “museum piece” that’s a pleasant reminder of a recent hunt in your own home at a reasonable price for years and years to come.