BUFFALO — Within the nook of the showroom, even amongst different bighorn sheep, antelope and mule deer, the mountain lion stands out. He rests on a picket stand, posed atop a shale outcrop, mountain mahogany sprouting from a crack. He watches, forehead ever-so-slightly furrowed, eyes cooly centered, like a cat eyeing a mouse it could possibly’t be bothered to chase.

This mountain lion, created by Johnson County-based taxidermist Dave Lengthy, was the recipient of the Carl Akeley award on the 2022 World Taxidermy Championships, amongst many different awards. When Lengthy lays out all of the awards the piece acquired on the Wyoming championships and the world championships, there are 4 plaques, three ribbons, two gold medallions, a buckle and a trophy.

However the Carl Akeley award stands out, probably the most prestigious awards a taxidermist can obtain.

“I am nonetheless in awe of all of it,” Lengthy mentioned.

The world championships are a biennial occasion, held alternatively in Europe and America. This yr it was held in Springfield, Missouri, on the finish of Could.

Lengthy entered the mountain lion with the encouragement of his household and of judges on the Wyoming state championships, the place he’d already acquired quite a few awards this yr, together with greatest in present.

Lengthy, his father, stepmother and 13-year-old son packed their issues and headed to Springfield for the weeklong competitors. He did not have any expectations to win — not to mention the coveted Carl Akeley award, equal, Lengthy mentioned, to the perfect in present.

However when, surrounded by his household, Lengthy did win, it was top-of-the-line emotions of his life.

“Once they known as my title and put the image of it up on the display, I used to be simply shaking. It is actually laborious to place into phrases, however I used to be simply ecstatic and shocked, in a manner. Simply tons of various feelings operating by way of me,” Lengthy mentioned. “However the perfect a part of all of it … to have my dad and my son there with me, that was the perfect half.”

Taxidermy runs within the Lengthy household. Lengthy’s father, John Lengthy, began Trophies Limitless Taxidermy in Johnson County 40 years in the past. Lengthy has reminiscences of his father working within the basement at their home on North DeSmet, perfecting his artwork after which looking for a technique to haul it up the steps.

As a toddler, Lengthy helped out, studying from his father, and in 2016, he started working full time on the enterprise, now positioned in a full-sized store. It was a pure match, he mentioned, particularly together with his father by his aspect.

“I perceive how lucky I’m to have been round it my whole life and to have the mentor I’ve, after which not solely to have that mentor, however for it additionally to be my dad,” Lengthy mentioned. “It is fairly particular.”

Like his father and grandfather earlier than him, Lengthy’s son additionally has an artist’s intuition. His medium is clay, Lengthy mentioned, and he has spent many hours sculpting figures, some from Marvel Comics, others from his personal creativeness.

Extra just lately, Lengthy’s son has expressed an curiosity in taxidermy.

Like his father, Lengthy mentioned he’ll be there to assist when — or if — his son decides to check out the household artwork kind.

“The primary piece he does,” Lengthy mentioned, “I will be proper by his aspect.”

As of late, Lengthy spends a lot of his time ending the items that the seven-person store produces, making use of the final touches that carry every animal again to life. It is rewarding, he mentioned, to see a tanned disguise remodel — by way of weeks of labor — into one thing akin to what the creature was in actual life.

Lengthy mentioned he is taxidermied animals from each continent besides Antarctica, and the store’s partitions are lined in initiatives from completely different locations: a bear from Alaska, a mountain goat from Canada, two savannah buffalo from Africa.

His clients, too, hail from a wide selection of nations.

However the award-winning mountain lion was for somebody nearer to dwelling; it was a present for his brother’s birthday.

On a searching journey together with his father, Lengthy’s brother harvested the mountain lion close to Kaycee when he was 13, virtually 20 years in the past. They stored the disguise however by no means received round to doing something with it. Regardless that the household enterprise is taxidermy, they not often do work for themselves, Lengthy mentioned.

From the start, he mentioned, he needed to do one thing distinctive however unassuming. He prefers easy poses, versus extra “outlandish” postures. And whereas he usually has to meet the client’s imaginative and prescient, this time he had full artistic freedom.

Lengthy selected a half life-size sculpture, eliminating the rear half of the mountain lion. He rests in a relaxed place, paws out, mouth closed. His head is turned to the left, the muscle mass in his neck flexing as he gazes into the space. His face is essentially the most hanging. There is a softness to the options that conceals the painstaking work beneath the pores and skin.

Lengthy mentioned that he receives essentially the most feedback — from specialists and non-experts alike – concerning the lion’s face. It is the symmetry and the softness, he mentioned, that creates the sensation that the mountain lion actually is watching.

“There is not any harsh traces. He is very full and delicate. And, you already know, that is how they’re once they’re alive, you already know what I imply?” Lengthy mentioned.

He mentioned he would not do taxidermy to win awards. However the a part of the Carl Akeley award that he is proudest of and factors to when speaking about it’s embedded within the judging standards, the place it specifies that the piece have to be a “stunning and legitimate type of wildlife artwork and painting the topic with style and dignity.”

For Lengthy, his work comes as shut as potential to giving the animals one other life.

“That is form of preserving, I suppose, that animal’s life in one of the simplest ways potential,” he mentioned.

This story was printed on Could 26, 2022.