Erda man shares passion for wildlife through his work as a taxidermist

It is a subject not many know about. And it’s a scene that seems unlikely in Erda where hundreds of African animals have passed through on their way to becoming a showpiece in a trophy room.

Erda resident Dirk Bawden, 31, is a taxidermist. He’s been doing taxidermy for about 14 years.

“How I got started is I shot a deer when I was probably about 17 and I took it into a taxidermy shop. I thought it was interesting and they took me on.”

The shop was a big taxidermy shop called Consolidated Field Sports in Salt Lake. Bawden, who grew up in West Valley, worked there for about three years off and on and worked for other guys before starting to run his own business for the last 10 years.

He moved to Erda from the Salt Lake Valley two years ago and now runs his own shop, Big Stuff Taxidermy, out of his garage at his Cimmarron Way home.

Over the years, Bawden has worked on an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 animals.

It’s a full-time job and requires he work long days and many hours. Last week he worked more than 80 hours, although he’s been getting ready for the North American Sheep Foundation show — where he will have six pieces displayed — that will be at the Salt Palace this week. A 60-hour workweek is pretty typical, he says.

“I love what I do,” he said. “And because I like what I do and I have a passion about wildlife it’s not as painful [working that much].”

The bulk of Bawden’s work now is with African animals, in which he specializes. Some of these animals, like an eland — an antelope found in Africa — are displayed at his home in his personal collection.

In his early years, Bawden mostly worked on North American animals, but made the switch to African animals about five or six years ago.

Last year, he and his sole employee, Zeb Hansen, took in about 250 African animals and 90 North American animals. Between the two of them, in a year they can produce between 250 and 300 animals.

Bawden says when people bring an animal in he tells them it’ll take anywhere from a year to a year and a half until completion.

“I work almost 14 hours a day every day of my life, so it’s a very involved process,” he said.

African animals he has worked on include leopards, African lions, African antelope, crocodiles and hippos.

Bawden and his wife even traveled to Africa about three years ago and spent four weeks there. They took many photographs, hunted and brought back 21 animals between the two of them. Bawden said his wife hunts, but she isn’t really into the taxidermy part of it.

In his shop, there are molds waiting to be worked on among bear, deer, sheep and other animals in various stages of completion.

In taxidermy, very little of the animal is actually used, Bawden said.

“The only parts that are used in the mount is the skin, and it’s tanned and turned into leather — like shoe leather but with hair on it. So really it’s only the leather and the hair and the horns,” he said.

People either bring in the skins or Bawden will skin it. Then the skins are tanned at a tannery. Bawden said he doesn’t tan anything at his shop.

Other than that, glass eyes, potters clay, polyurethane foam, plaster, fiberglass and other materials are used to come up with a finished product.

Molds are pre-manufactured, and from there Bawden customizes it. He wets the leather so it will stretch. Glue and pins are used to achieve the right details.

He said a lot of what he does is understanding the anatomy of the animals. When Bawden and his wife visited Africa they took many reference photos so he can keep with the authenticity of the animal when doing a mount. He’s also visited Alaska and Texas and tries to travel as much as he can.

The actual process on a deer is about a week. For a life-size grizzly, like the one he has in his shop now, it takes about two weeks.

Mounts can cost someone anywhere from $700 to $1,250 for standard deer or elk mounts. It can be a little bit more for African animals.

Bawden said his whole business is worth of mouth, mostly done through competitions he’s involved in.

While he said he probably has more in-state customers, often the out-of-state ones are very wealthy and African animals they want preserved.

Bawden transports the finished animals to the customers, which can make for long road-trips. This year he will make three cross-country trips delivering various animals.

Bawden said the most challenging animal to do is a cat because it’s all in the expression.

When deciding on poses the animal will have in the mount, Bawden said the customer will usually give input and he will give suggestions and they’ll work from there.

Bawden has won numerous awards at various competitions, including winning a top award for a leopard at last year’s Western Regional Taxidermy competition.

“It’s easier to mount North American stuff, so I’ve always pushed myself so by doing a bunch of African show pieces and I’ve kind of developed a name in African hunting.”

He’s won monetary prizes for some of his awards — including at Western Regionals — but says instead of competition being about money it’s a way to see what level he’s at compared with others.

“It’s to judge yourself against your peers to see how you stack up,” he said. “Through competition you know where you stand as a taxidermist.”

He said he’s loved wildlife and watching wildlife ever since he was young, and that sometimes people may not think of hunters as having a passion for wildlife.

“The true statement is hunters probably put in more money to preserve wildlife,” he said. “I would say hunters are more conservationists than people give them credit for.”

Bawden said he’ll eventually build a shop for his business. He owns 5 acres and will likely put it on his property. But one thing he doesn’t do and won’t do is work on pets.

“People ask about pets all the time. I don’t do any pets,” he said. “I love dogs so the whole idea freaks me out.”

He has 32 unmounted animals of his own. He does one or two of his own a year when he finds time.

Bawden’s young daughter thinks it’s normal having all these animals around the house because she’s grown up with it, he says.

“She knows quite a few African animals,” Bawden said.

While he’s fairly young in the world of taxidermy, Bawden’s been doing it for close to half his life and doesn’t plan on quitting anytime soon.

“I take in so many animals ever year if I tried to quit now I’d have 300 people upset with me,” he said. “I’m pretty sure till the day they tap dirt on my head I’ll probably be doing it.”

Sarah Miley: swest@tooeletranscript.com