Yann Martell talks with the CBC and National Post in the CZC

Author, Yann Martel spent the afternoon in the Conservatory having cookies, talking taxidermy and being interviewed  by the CBC for a television spotlight. Martel’s new book Beatrice & Virgil explores taxidermy and the holocaust. Read More about Saskatoon’s darling in The Province and watch the interview on CBC.ca As well you can see the photo-shoot and interview in The National Post

Yann Martel The National Post Photo by Tyler Anderson

What to do with your dog when he dies

What is a girl to do? When you spend your days buying and curating your personal taxidermy collection, what do you do when your beloved hairless dog dies? Thankfully Colonel Sanders is alive and kicking but everyone always asks “Will you  have the Colonel Stuffed?” This is a more perplexing question then you would think. My worry is that even an expert taxidermist would transform the Colonels human-like skin to the slick plasticity of  trophy pike. After a road-trip to New York and a visit to the MOMA my worries were solved. Not to stuff the Colonel, but to strip him! When our favourite companion and Conservatory greeter sadly dies we will have his bones stripped and reassembled in a glass domed jar with brass plaque. Taxidermy done well can convey charter and evoke emotion. I think I would prefer to remember him alive but am too sentimental to hide him under ground.

All I want is a horse skeleton, is that too much to ask?

The Conservatory’s wish list of  specimens includes  a peacock,  a narwhal and a horse. Alas none of these delightful creatures have graced our home yet. The problem with collecting  and preserving taxidermy is the despicable moth. I might have found the only way to defeat the insatiable winged devourer. A horse skeleton! If anyone out their would care to donate skeletons, I would be thrilled. All I want for Christmas is a dead skinned horse.

On the weekend I went to an auction to stake claims on a small but beautifully crafted crocodile. I waited for the crowds to settle and the auctioneer to get underway. When lot 11 came up, I raised my hand to bid and was disgruntled to learn 3 others wanted my prize. The price went up up up and I went home with no reptile companion.

Morgan Mavis & the Honey Ark

I always like to think of the story of Noah and the flood. Noah built the first natural history museum. The CZC is following in his footsteps preserving animals two by two. The Contemporary Zoological Conservatory has been honoured by local left wing farming initiative in Fergus, Onario, with a hive named after me! Morgan Mavis’s Honey Ark. I am simply delighted. Now in the tradition of Noah, we must stock pile that honey. Acquiring jars two by two. Photo documentation of a honey field trip to come in June.

A generous donation of  a small Caiman turned out to be no Caiman at all! Annunziata Morant bestowed the Conservatory with a 4 foot 4 inch standing Alligator. We are just delighted with this gift, the largest reptile in our collection. I pose a challenge to all out there: Who can donate a larger specimen?

For a  collection that started off  as fur and feathers  now the reptiles have their day in the sun.

Iguana iguana, Trachemys scripta, Caiman crocodilus,  Alligator mississippiensis, Paleosuchus palpebrosus.

What a wonderful week. First the arrival of a novel, Stuffed by Sarah Junkin arrives in the mail. A present to me and the CZC from Sarah herself!

Then today a Toronto philanthropist Annunziata Morant donated a standing caiman. This vintage chap has a marble for an eye and is a dandy of a donation.

Thank You

A new  collection for the CZC, a Library. The Conservatory has amassed a collection of books on taxidermy; cultural theory, museum origins, do it yourself, museum catalogs and even fictional tellings of taxidermy and taxidermists. The Library is another collection, I always  seem to create order in my life by listing, collecting and documenting.

“Umberto Eco: The list is the origin of culture. It’s part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order — not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries. There is an allure to enumerating how many women Don Giovanni slept with: It was 2,063, at least according to Mozart’s librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte. We also have completely practical lists — the shopping list, the will, the menu — that are also cultural achievements in their own right.”

Morgan Mavis and Christopher Bennell take a gander

We are excitedly awaiting several new adventures in The Conservatory’s future.

I look forward to sharing the details with you soon