Polar bear peak of vintage taxidermy

Want to own your own bear, moose or lion?

A Dunedin auction house is resembling a veritable zoo as 150 taxidermy animals are prepared to go under the hammer this Sunday.

The unusual items came largely from three separate collections – two from Central Otago and one from Dunedin – with some one-off pieces such as a zebra skin from Christchurch, Proctor Auctions manager Ronnie Proctor said.

The collections were largely amassed between the 1950s and 1970s and include a wart hog, a lion, a polar bear, a baboon, an arctic fox, and a moose. polar

The collections were amassed by people sent to exotic destinations to hunt for specimens for collections.

The lion and the moose were from the same collection, belonging to a former farmer turned big game hunter.

While it was hard to estimate how much each item would fetch, prices were likely to range from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands, Proctor said.

The piece generating the most heat was the full-sized polar bear.

‘‘It is not often you see a polar bear in Dunedin, let alone New Zealand – the polar bear has a lot of people talking.’’

The auction house had received some interest from overseas and from New Zealand collectors and museums.

Perhaps the strangest items Ronnie Proctor were elephant feet turned into rubbish bins and foot stools, while an elephant ear – complete with zebra legs – had been used as a coffee table.

‘‘I can’t say I’m a fan of these,’’ Proctor said.

Many of the pieces had been housed at the George St auction house since the start of the year, and Proctor had become used to sharing the workplace with the animals.

‘‘I’m actually quite enjoying it – where else would I have had the opportunity to see these animals unless I went over to those countries and spent a whole lot of money.

‘‘Here I’m looking them up and figuring out what they are and where they come from – it has been really exciting,’’ Proctor said.

‘‘It is not often you see a polar bear in Dunedin.’’