82-Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, November 24,1984
BY SALLY BAIR
Staff! Correspondent
RONKS On Monday,
thousands of hunters will take to
the woods in Pennsylvania looking
for that most beautiful and most
elusive game, the white tailed
deer. For those lucky or skilled
enough to kill one with a sub
stantial rack, the next step may be
to visit their local taxidermist to
preserve the hide and antlers to
bring back the excitement of the
hunt long after it is over.
Richard Herr, Ronks R 2, is a
dairy farmer who works part time
as a taxidermist because of his
love of hunting and wildlife. He
enjoys making the animals look as
lifelike as possible, and likes the
tedious, exacting work which goes
into taxidermy. “It is very fine
work, very time consuming,” he
says of his avocation.
Herr operates a 40-cow dairy
herd with the help of his family just
outside Strasburg, and he makes it
clear that the farm and herd are
his first priority. “There are my
bread and butter.” But when the
Richard Herr holds one of the many hides awaiting com
pletion. A dairy farmer, Herr feels his part-time taxidermy
business fits in well with a dairy herd and with his special
interest in hunting.
appear as it would in ,
Daily former expresses love
of wildlife through taxidermy
field work is done and things slow
down in the winter, Herr can often
be found in what had previously
been the family butcher shop,
working on animals brought to
him.
Herr says he has hunted “since I
was old enough to hold a gun," but
his interest in taxidermy began in
1954 when he shot a pair of wood
ducks on the farm and had them
mounted. He recalls, “I thought, if
only I could do a specimen Idee
that.”
Not one to wish idly, Herr sent
for a correspondence course,
which he completed, and then
served a three to four month ap
prenticeship with Richard Busch,
at Franklin and Marshall College’s
North Museum in Lancaster. He
credits Busch with helping him
perfect his skill, saying, “He
helped me a lot. He’s super on
birds.”
As friends began asking him to
do work for them, he decided to get
his license, and in 1972 took the
exam and was officially licensed
by the state.
Asked for advice to hunters so
that their trophy can be mounted in
the most desireable way, Herr
responded, “The biggest thing is to
get it to the taxidermist as soon as
possible.’’ He said the worst thing,
especially for deer, is to leave the
hide in a warm, damp place after it
is skinned. “It will lose the hair
and begin to decompose,” he
states.
Furthermore, Herr says,
“Hunters continually cut the hide
off too short. If they want a
shoulder mount, they should cut it
behind the front legs, and have the
brisket with it.”
He also said, “You can’t take too
many measurements.” He said he
can estimate the appearance of a
head if the hunter brings in just the
hide, but it is extremely helpful to
have measurements as to the
width of the eyes, the length of the
muzzle, the circumference of the
neck, and many others.
As for the homemaker who must
deal with the perfectly preserved
mount that comes into her home,
Herr advised, “You should hang it
in a place where it gets the least
amount of light, especially
sunlight.” Fowl can be wiped off
with cotton or tissue, and game
heads can be vacuumed. It is of
extreme importance to always
wipe with the air, so as not to
lossen the hair. To make the hide
shine, Herr says the best thing to
use is a discarded nylon stocking
and wipe it gently.
He added, “Mounts should last a
lifetime, depending upon the
variables.”
He said extreme dryness will
break the skin and cause it to
deteriorate, and the sun will bleach
the colors. He said all mounts
should be placed away from
fireplaces, if possible.
In Herr’s opinion, one of the most
important skills of a taxidermist is
knowing how a specimen should
look, and then knowing how to
make it look that way. “That is the
key to a perfect mount.”
His love of the outdoors and
hunting experience helps him
know what an animal looks like in
nature, and he says living color
photographs are a great asset. He
said his background in butchering
is also helpful to him as he pursues
his taxidermy.
Herr added, “The number one
thing is eye expression. I buy
quality eyes.” The eyes are made
of glass, and the forms for the
heads are of urethane. Herr said a
taxidermist must also consider the
placement of the ear and muzzle as
he works on the finished animals.
It is evident that little touches can
be influenced a great deal by the
jrd Herr sews , cape of a white tailed deer as he
works on finishing the mount in the workroom on his dairy
farm. He especially enjoys working on whitetailed deer and
prefers them to mounting small game.
While pheasants are
becoming more scarce in
Pennsylvania, it is still
possible to find a specimen
such as this. Herr finds it
challenging to mount game
birds and admires the in
tricate coloring of the
feathers.
wmestpad
tMoips
skill of the taxidermist and
something as insignificant as the
width of the eye opening can have a
strong influence on the final ap
pearance of the mounted animal.
Herr says his close work with
animals has taught him “to realize
how much fuller and how perfect
and beautiful God’s creation is.
You only realize how perfect the
creation is when you try to
duplicate it. You really know there
is a supreme being.”
He adds, “I try to use the best
methods and the best products I
know. I try to give the best
workmanship.” He enjoys at
c tention to the tiniest detail, hut
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Herr prefers mounting
whitetailed deer, and this
specimen attests to his skill.
He spends a lot of time
preparing the hide, shaving
closely around the eyes and
nose to achieve a look as
close to nature as possible.
Herr says realistically, “If I
charged auto mechanics’ wages,
no one could afford to have a head
mounted.”
The work of a taxidermist is not
just stretching the finished hide
over the purchased frame. It
begins when the head is brought to
him, and he must skin the hide off
the skull. Then he salts it and ships
it to a tanner, he works very hard
shaving the skin closely around the
eyes so it will lay right when
finished, and he also takes the
cartilage out of the ear, replacing
it with an ear liner when he works
(Turn to Page B 4)
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