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ALPENA -- An animal graveyard is the scene when you walk into Advanced Wildlife Designs, a taxidermy business in Alpena owned by Henry Kreger who works to recreate once ferocious and free animals with his crew of seven people.
Kreger said he began his love of taxidermy, hunting and fishing as a child and transformed his love and respect for animals into sewing and stuffing animals with an artistic spin. Displayed in the shop are cougars resting on a tree top, bears catching fish among many others.
"I had a business partner who knew the business, that is how I learned," he said. "It's very satisfying to take something that's in pieces and put back together and watch customers walk out with a smile on his or her face."
Taxidermy derives from the Greek meaning "the arrangement of skin." What began as the preservation of Pharos and other animals, started the begining of skinning animals for use of fur for warmth. By the 17th century competitions were held where taxidermists would showcase their work. In the early days of the artistic expression, many animals were a vague assumption of what the artist believed the animal to look like as they did not know what many exotic animals looked like.
From bears to fish to deer, Kreger has prepared hundreds of animals. One wolf is propped in the middle of the shop staring menacingly. It is one of his favorite to prepare.
"I like wolves, we do a few of those every year," he said. "Someone is always going hunting for one in Canada. It seems like so we do quite a few of those."
The process to taxidermy takes approximately a year for a deer and four months for a fish. Kreger said he drapes the tanned hide over a polyethane mannequin to form the animal and stuffs it. Ihe eyes are plastic and uses ear liners.
"If you shot a deer and you bring it in we skin it, send the meat to the butcher shop," he said. "From there, we skin the head off the skull and take the hide and salt it and flush the eyes, lips and ears."
Kreger does the tanning in-house and even provides services for other taxidermists in the area. The process is seven to 10 days of drying after the hide is tanned and draped over a mannequin, sewn and stitched over the model. A deer can take from one year to 18 months while a fish will take four months to complete.
"We use the best tanning agent available. We don't use shortcuts, so if you are storing it properly it will last," he said. "Some that we have on the wall are 30 years old and are not splitting or cracking yet so that is still to be determined."
Maintenance of animals after taken home is to keep them out of direct sunlight, stay at room temperature. Kreger said extreme temperature whether cold or hot, will affect the shelf life of the animals. Taxidermied animals can last longer than 30 years if properly maintained.
He said taxidermy is a hard business to compete in because taxidermy is a hobby for many who can charge less than a business because they do the work at their own pace and doing it out of pure enjoyment, do not require cost of employees and building.
"Me and my partner used to teach taxidermy. We had several hundred students
come through here," he said.
"Taxidermy is a tough business to be in, because there are so many people that work out of their garages. It is very difficult to compete with the pricing of that guy who works out of his garage."
They get steady business year round. Kreger has been a taxidermist for 30 years in May. Advanced Wildlife Designs used to be under a different name, Limited Edition, but Kreger had to rename the business when his partner retired.
"We have more work than we know what to do with," said Kreger. "Our business has grown year after year and we keep gaining more each year."
Advanced Wildlife Designs is open six days a week and works with customers on an as needed basis,. Kreger said he does not work with pets because many die from a disease and natural causes which could spread.
Beth Gohs can be reached via email at bgohs@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5693.