ABU DHABI // It’s not every day a person gets to walk up to a lioness, much less stroke her, but that is what flocks of visitors to the annual Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition did on Wednesday.
With her right front leg slightly bent and her jaw opened just wide enough to reveal her deadly fangs, the blonde queen of the jungle posed no harm to the many admirers who approached her in awe or tickled her ear – she was stuffed stiff thanks to the art of taxidermy.
The lioness is on display at the Highveld Taxidermists booth along with dozens of other exotic prized animal trophies. Last year, when the South African company made its second appearance at Adihex, inventory sold out. This year, sales are already booming, said spokeswoman Mary-Anne Fernandes.
“Sales are looking lucrative,” said Ms Fernandes, noting the buyers are a mix of Emiratis and other nationalities.
The company has been around for 35 years. It is the largest taxidermy company in South Africa and the fifth-largest in the world. Most of her clients are from the United States, the Middle East, Australia and Europe, Ms Fernandes said. About 2 per cent are from the UAE.
“We do custom work, which means the client goes out and they go with a safari company and they go and hunt the animals and they bring the skins and the skulls to us and that’s when we produce the trophy,” she said.
The process of transforming a wild, hunted animal into a living-room showpiece is labour-intensive and lengthy, which explains the price. It costs about Dh30,000 to mount a lioness. A bust of an Oryx goes for about Dh6,000.
“For the amount of work that goes into it, I mean, it takes approximately 10 months for us to produce an item from when we receive it to complete,” Ms Fernandes said. “Once we get the skin and the skull, when it’s raw and it’s fresh, we dry it out completely. It takes three to six weeks for us to dry the skin. Once it gets dry, it goes through a tanning process. It gets folded up in that salt and it gets dried in an open area.”
Once dried, the pelt goes through a tanning process so it does not disintegrate and the skin side is shaved down to make it more pliable. While the skin is being prepared, the animal’s new body – made out of fibreglass and polyurethane – is moulded into whatever pose or stance the owner requests.
“A client can tell us he wants it in a walking pose or he wants the animal to be sitting or he wants the animal to be crouching like he’s going to be jumping, about to attack,” Ms Fernandes said.
It takes another six to eight weeks for the skin to attach to its new body. Once the skin glue is dry, the taxidermist works on putting the final touches, like installing hand-painted glass eyes imported from Germany and final cosmetic work around the face.
“During the tanning process, it loses slightly its colour, so we touch it up so it looks natural. We paint, touch-up the noses a bit with paint and the mouth as well,” she said.
The animal’s original teeth are replaced with fibreglass versions.
“It displays better on a wooden plank,” Ms Fernandes said of the animal’s teeth. “The reason why they do that is so that you can see the size of the fangs.”
The teeth and other bones can also be used to make jewellery, which Highveld Taxidermists also sells.
Among the other treasures available were hand-painted Ostrich eggs for Dh600, including a stand made out of bones, animal rugs ranging in price from Dh400 for a Springbok, to the most expensive, a zebra hide, for Dh6,000.
Salah Shareef, a 34-year-old Emirati who was looking to add to his private collection of trophy taxidermy, said he was impressed by the quality and the prices he saw at Adihex.
“It’s not all the companies that make a good trophy, but what I saw over there, they’ve got quite amazing trophies,” he said.
“I’ve got only four trophies – bigger than these anyway.”
His trophies were hunted by friends, he said.
“I never shoot animals, only with a camera,” he added.
Charles Le Roux, a taxidermist who is making his debut at the exhibition, said his experience with Emirati hunters is that they like to keep the animal’s fur, but don’t usually go for the full mount.
“This market, they don’t usually want the animal,” said Mr Le Roux, who co-owns South African hunting-safari company Dubula. “They want the skin, that’s pretty much it. They don’t really want the shoulder mount. They would rather come here and buy one.”
rpennington@thenational.ae
