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(EMAILWIRE.COM, December 17, 2012 ) Fremont, CA -- While the art of taxidermy is fading quickly around the country, one person who continues to thrive in the industry is Tim Bovard, lead Taxidermist at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum.
Bovard is a big defender of the career that most people see as gross and creepy, and even the mention of his work will make his face light up. According to Bovard, his love for taxidermy came at a surprisingly young age:
“My parents would have said that they think I was born with this in mind,” he said. “As a kid, I was already trying to do things, finds animals, try and preserve them. I actually mounted my first animal to try and do a realistic life mount when I was 9, 10 years old. And it was a skunk.”
Bovard also attributes his natural love of the profession to his younger days when his parents would take him to the history museum that he now works for. He said he was fascinated by the dioramas and how dead things could appear so alive. Looking into the eyes of the animals at the museum sparked imagination and curiosity from the young boy that would later grow up to run the department of taxidermy for the very same museum.
Explaining that the job is not as much blood and guts as people think, Bovard gave an inside look into how he and other taxidermist actually work. He brought me to the room where all the “gross” actions are performed and even showed me first hand how the process works.
Taking out a large cow skin from a giants pot full of what looked like brown water, Bovard explained, “You can see some lines or ridges in it, and what I’ve been doing is shaving it down. So, removing any excess tissue or flesh, but also actually shaving the thickness of the hide down.” He then explained how the hide is tanned and rubbed with oil in order to make it preservable and not smell. It usually takes weeks for Bovard to complete the process for a large animal like a cow, but says that a smaller animal like a cat can usually be completed in a couple of days.
“You know, we like live stuff too,” said Bovard. “That’s something intriguing to people who think we’re just into the dead stuff. And if you think about it, it makes sense. Yeah, we are working with a dead animal, but we are trying to make it back to what it looked like in life. And that is the challenge...to me, kind of the ultimate challenge is to take a dead animal and get it back and capture some of the essence, some of the beauty of that animal.”
While the art of taxidermy is dying around the country, Tim Bovard will not let it die at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. he currently has two apprentices working under him so that when he finally has to give up the job he so dearly loves, it will live on.
About Bay Area Taxidermy:
Bay Area Taxidermy (http://bayareataxidermy.com) offers the best in taxidermy services in the Bay Area. Bringing animals back to life with affordable prices and meticulous work, Bay Area Taxidermy is the place to go for all taxidermy needs.
Wilderness Taxidermy
Customer Service
510 490 4333
notacab@gmail.com 
Source: EmailWire.com
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