PEOPLE & 



PLACES 



Taxidermy: 



Ancient Practice is Now Art Form 



By Ann Green • Photographs by Scott D. Taylor 



A, 



. s you step inside 

 Sandra Owens' Columbia 

 workshop, a red fox is 

 perched on a small wood 

 stump, as if it is going to 

 leap forward. 



Nearby, a dark brown 

 otter is stretched out on its 

 belly on a dirt-like surface, 

 as if it is just got back from a 

 swim in the river. 



Across the room, a 

 green-headed mallard duck 

 has its white and black 

 wings spread out like it is 

 going to fly away. 



Owens created all these 

 lifelike representations of 

 animals and their habitats. 



In her eight years as a 

 taxidermist, Owens has 

 mounted a variety of wildlife in realistic 

 poses and settings for Goose Creek State 

 Park, Merchants Millpond State Park, 

 Pettigrew State Park and Hammocks Beach 

 State Park. 



For the Goose Creek Environmental 

 Education Center, Owens designed a 

 chunky brown beaver that looks like it is 

 going to slap the water with its tail. The 

 beaver is lying on a dark brown base near a 

 tree stump embedded with teeth marks. 



"Sandra is able to put the animals in 

 the context of their habitat and works with 

 us to make sure the poses are realistic," 

 says Goose Creek park ranger Phoebe 

 Wahab. "The quality of taxidermy work is 

 critical when you are working with school 

 children who zero in on anything that is 



ABOVE: Sandra Owens has been a taxidermist for eight 

 LEFT: Completed projects show realistic poses. 



wrong. We had a bobcat that became more 

 of a distraction than a learning experience." 



Owens also mounts large and small 

 games for hunters. Occasionally, she 

 mounts her own game. 



"A lot of people don't have the 

 stomach to handle taxidermy," says Owens. 

 "I have hunted a long time and been around 

 blood." 



One of Owens' most prized posses- 

 sions is a 250-pound black bear that sits on 

 a cypress stump in her living room. 



With its mouth open and paw on a 

 knee, the bear looks like it is getting ready 

 to attack its next victim. Owens won third 

 place for the bear in a taxidermy contest at 

 Piedmont Community College in Roxboro. 



The room also is decorated with a bear 



years. 



rug near the fireplace, 

 several mounted deer and 

 a brown, gray and black 

 spotted bobcat on a tree 

 limb. 



Owens gathers tree 

 limbs, stumps and other 

 habitat material when 

 trekking in the woods. For 

 a fox habitat, she found a 

 small locust that she placed 

 near a stump. 



"I enjoy the habitat 

 scenes as much as doing 

 the taxidermy," says 

 Owens. "I like my animals 

 to look as realistic as 

 possible." 



To get her animals 

 to look lifelike, Owens 

 incorporates many 

 techniques — from tanning deer skins to 

 sewing up bullet holes. 



She also uses her artistic skills, 

 including sculpting and painting body parts. 

 On a recent day, she was molding a deer's 

 ear with clay. 



"I look on taxidermy as an art form," 

 says Owens. "I used to sew for a living. 

 I also did tole painting for a number of 

 years." 



TAXIDERMY EVOLVED 

 FROM ANCIENT METHODS 



The practice of taxidermy evolved 

 thousands of years ago when primitive 

 hunters crudely formed animal skins over 

 mud and rock for use in their hunting 

 rituals. Continued 



COASTWATCH 21 



