The 2023 UTA Expo took place at the Drury Hotel and Convention Center in Wichita, Kansas, April 18–23. After being absent from the competition world for five years, the mounts that were entered were of exceptional quality. The judges were Jack Emery, Kerby Ross, Todd Kranau,  and Randy Holler. To join the United Taxidermist Association visit https://unitedtaxidermyassociation.com or contact Tim Stidham (chairman) at stuffit@timstaxidermy.com.

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In 2017, an excellent client harvested a rare black rhino in Namibia. It was one of five killed in the world that year because only 5 tags are sold each year. The client asked me in 2019 if I would mount his black rhino shoulder mount, and of course, I jumped at the chance and so began the struggle. While waiting for the rhino hide and horns to arrive at the shop from being tanned at Wildlife Gallery, I started my search looking for a form, and I discovered that no one makes black rhino shoulder forms. So, the wheels started turning, and my creative side went to work.

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Back in the late 1800s the three species of ducks listed above were put in the same genus Bucephala. Buffleheads were formerly treated as the only members of the genus Bucephala, while goldeneyes were incorrectly placed in the genus Clangula in the early 1800s, the genus of long-tailed ducks like old squaws. In 1885 goldeneyes were moved into the genus Bucephala with buffleheads, but biologists may soon change this as they now know the two goldeneyes are well diverged. The genus Glaucionetta may soon be resurrected for goldeneyes.

Common and Barrow’s goldeneyes are very similar so I will present their reference first. What is the difference between a common goldeneye and a Barrows goldeneye?

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A common question we get from new anglers is, “Is this a walleye or sauger?” Although obvious on many occasions, Mother Nature has been known to throw a few tricks into the identification process. Depending on the waterbody, walleye and sauger often have many similar characteristics, and the telltail differences between the two aren’t always super defined.

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I could not end this feature that started last issue with Tim Gorenchan’s excellent article on the details of painting a walleye. Then the question came forward of the difference between walleyes and saugers. The previous article did not mention zanders because as far as I know there are no zanders in Canada. Zanders can be found all over Europe, and as they closely resemble walleyes. While zanders are almost exclusively found in Europe, the UK, and western Eurasia, two lakes in North America hold an actual population of them as well. These waters are Spiritwood Lake and Alkali Lake in North Dakota. The North Dakota Game and Fish Department officially stocked zanders in Spiritwood Lake back in 1989. Since then, these European predators (that look so much like walleyes) have inhabited this water. Here, both Spiritwood Lake, located near Jamestown, and the connected Alkali Lake south of it, hold populations of zanders.

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