Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 10/02) - Growing up in Reliance, Aileen Drybones learned early how to work with fur: hunting, drying the skins the traditional way and selling them for profit.

Aileen Drybones adjusts the pins in a caribou head. The pins retain the shape of the animal's nostril as it dries. - Nathan VanderKlippe/NNSL photo

Last week, she learned how modern taxidermists work with fur as a student in Aurora College's first taxidermy class. Taught by a professional instructor from Manitoba, a half-dozen pupils learned how to prepare lynx, minks, martens, caribou head shoulder mounts and walleye.

Born in Yellowknife, Drybones was raised on the land: her aunt took her by dogsled to Reliance when she was three days old. She returned to Yellowknife when she was 14 years old, when she started Grade 6.

Under the tutelage of her parents and grandparents, Drybones first learned to hunt squirrels and trap martens.

"I've had a gun since I was about six years old," she says.

"My grandfather had cut the barrel of a .22 because it was too heavy for me, and cut the stock so it could fit me."

As she grew up, she moved on to wolverines, wolves and bigger prey.

"I got to hunting wolves on a snowmachine, chasing them and shooting them. Then we'd skin it, dry it and take it to Renewable."

Learned through college

Drybones stayed in Yellowknife, working a smattering of jobs. Then, while in a class at Aurora College, she picked up a flyer about the taxidermy course, which the college plans to offer twice annually.

"I grew up in the bush. All of my life I worked with fur, and I always wanted to do taxidermy," she said.

She saw her chance, and enrolled.

The methods she learned were dramatically different from those she used while growing up: using a machine to de-flesh the skin, and chemicals to tan the hide.

"I personally found it was kind of difficult ... because I'm not used to it," she said.

Modern taxidermy is part darkroom work, part sculpture. A hide is put through a series of chemicals, each of which work on the skin for 24 hours.

Then the skin is wrapped around a styrofoam body, and pins are stuck in the nose and eyelids to retain their form as they dry.

"The final part of it is you paint the eyelids, nose, lips and mouth because they all go white," said Drybones.

The trick is mounting the animal in a lifelike manner.

"If you're not artistic, you can make it happen but it won't be as great," she said. Because of her background, Drybones is optimistic about her abilities.

"I've spent all my life around animals. I know exactly how they look when they're alive and how to fit things into the right positions," she said.

She hopes to use her new skills to create a new business or get a job with Robertson's Taxidermy.

"I really believe that I'm going to be just as good as Robertson in a matter of time," she said.

But for now, she is content practising as a taxidermist.

"It makes me feel closer to nature for some reason," she said.

"I love animals and I love dealing with animals."