a beautiful piece of taxidermy featuring a juvenile porcupine walking in a snowy pine field. This little guy was an extreme pain to mount. Endless form modification and porcupine quill pricks, but it paid off in the end. This little guy has a great coat on him with long yellow/black guard hairs. The porcupine measures roughly 25 inches long, by 14 1/4" wide, by 12" Tall. Great care was taken to tan the animals hide appropriately to ensure a lifetime of enjoyment.
Great care was also taken to achieve a good base for this animals. The animal is mounted on a walnut hollow Walnut base that has a gorgeous figuration to it. This particular piece did have a crack around the perimeter (see photos). So extra care was taken to secure the crack back together via screws and a base of bondo. All of these display bases require a coating of bondo/resin to ensure stability and prevent wood warping and it was at this stage that the crack was fixed and reinforced. I can assure you that the crack will not only never grow larger but it will be all but bulletproof. It is almost unnoticeable as well (see photos).
One of the problems when making snow habitat scenes is that the adhesive used to secure the snow tends to yellow over time via UV exposure. I wanted to prevent this from happening to any customer so I used Smooth on Crystal Clear as an adhesive for the snow which will ensure a lifetime of display without any worry of yellowing. This also will aid in dusting the mount in the future as less snow will come loose over time and it will blow off much easier and cleaner than using other methods.
Almost all of this porcupines quills remained intact during the mounting process and it turned out fairly well overall.
This animal will be shipping in a plywood reinforced crate to insure that it arrives safely to your door. This is also needed to make sure the quills don't embed in the cardboard which could result in quill loss. This does add weight to the package, but it is necessary in the long run.
