By Meg Peters
Review Staff Writer
A 175 lb. cougar kind of fell into Glenn Bartoni’s lap.
The illegally poached animal arrived at Sportsman’s Taxidermy, owned by Lake Orion resident Bartoni, July 1 with a personal note from the governor’s office.
‘Mr. Glenn Bartoni of Sportsman’s Taxidermy’has authorized possession of one male cougar hide/frozen and one boiled skull for the purpose of performing taxidermy services to mount the animal in life size form in a display case for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Newberry Operations Service Center,? the letter reads.
To this date, the cougar is the only legally mounted large cat tracked by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) in Michigan, where it is illegal to hunt the endangered species.??
According to the DNR website, cougars were ‘extirpated? from the Michigan population at the turn of the century, or in other words, eliminated.
This large cat was shot near Newberry, a village in Luce County of the Upper Peninsula, by a young boy and two adults. When the trio arrived back to their hometown Bay City they brought the cat to a taxidermist, tried to keep it hush-hush, but eventually word got out in the younger boy’s school.
The DNR tracked the tom down. Tom is another term for a male cougar, which is also called mountain lion or panther.
Shortly after the DNR took the cougar Bartoni was asked if he would be willing to mount the cat.
‘Actually I kind of thought it was a prank. I often have people calling saying I shot this owl, or I got this hawk, which I have to disregard because they’re’all illegal stuff,? he said.
Boy was he excited though when the DNR called back to confirm.
Bartoni dehydrated the large animal with salt and sent it to his tanner, who rehydrated it, removed all the flesh, skinned the eyes, and shipped it back.
The mountain lion form Bartoni chose is made of Styrofoam and is actually the size of?’leopard because this cougar was exceptionally large. Typically cougars are close to 135 lbs.
As a taxidermist, Bartoni shapes the position of the form for which the cat will be permanently mounted.
His goal with this cat was to keep it natural looking.
‘The best part is, see his lips just slightly split, it’s not really common but I did it to be different. It’s going to be up, off the ground about seven-feet high, so people are going to walk underneath it and think, oh wow, there’s his teeth, because everyone is really geeky about the teeth.?
The mounting process is almost complete. Bartoni is taking a brief pause on the cat process to work on what is typical of the current hunting season’deer.
As for the cat, once it is completely mounted, the DNR will pick it up and the tour will begin. From Lake Orion the tom will be taken to Lansing, to Bay City, up to Marquette and finally be housed back where he initially roamed near Newberry.
Bartoni has mounted six other large cats which were legally killed in Whyoming, Colorado or Idaho, he said.
‘This is the only documented cougar in the state, according to the DNR. They claim there’s another over in Allegan County, but they haven’t been able to document it. There was supposed to be one in Alpena, but it was some kind of hoax someone put together. This is the real thing.?
Apart from his excitement to mount this particular cat, Bartoni has mounted some other wilder, and stranger, requests, including a tiger, zebra, wildebeest, a domestic cat (which he did as a favor), and the craziest thing, former professional Red Wing’s player Ted Lindsay’s horse.
?