I'm curious about the "parts" of a hippo that are brought back to the states as trophies. Obviously the teeth / ivory is saved, but how many people bring the whole skull back as a trophy? I'll assume the weight makes this fairly expensive. What about the hide? Again, I'll assume there is enough hide to make the weight an issue. I think I've heard it makes high quality leather. Is this correct? What else is there worth bringing back? Any first hand expereince?

Thanks,

Bill

The hide when tanned in RSA and split thin, is very much on the order of velvet, and the most beatiful skin I have ever seen....The teeth are very large when extracted and when polished with a gold cap are a nice trophy...Not many folks bring the huge skull home..The feet/legs make ashtrays and wastepaper baskets if one likes that sort or stuff..

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I have the full skull with the jaws pinned open. A very impressive trophy indeed. It gets as much attention from non-hunters as the crocodile mount. A non-hunter friend had me shoot a hippo and get it mounted for him in the same manner as mine. He put it on a Lazy Susan on top of his coffee table and he just loves it.

Regards,

Mark

Mark,

The skull sounds very impressive. Do you have any photos? Any particular problems or issues shipping the skull to the states? Thanks, everyone, for the ideas.

Bill

Mark, Could you please manage to post a picture of your mount for us? I would very much like to see it. Sounds impressive.

There are all kind of things you can "salvage" from a hippo. I had the skinners make me a few whips from the skin by cutting them in strips and tieing a rock to the end to stretch it from a tree while it dried. They came out quite nice. I took two of the feet and had them tanned-probably make something out of them someday. Took the cape of course, to make a shoulder mount. The teeth-I plan to have them capped with brass, and mount on a plaque. Had my taxidermist make molds of the teeth, so I can have one repo set for the mount, and one for the skull. Yes, I brought the skull back. Haven't decided yet on how I want to display the skull, the lazy susan type base sounds like a good idea, but when I was playing around with the skull, I noticed that the top part without the lower jaw looks pretty neat too. I might just mount the top half on a plaque and hang it on the wall like a big european mount. I had two panels of skin tanned, and yes, it does look like velvet, and is very attractive-just haven't decided what to use it for yet either. Have fun with your hippo!