Knut the Polar Bear and Fly Tying

Hi All,

I suppose that you all have seen the reports about Knut the Polar bear. He was a major draw at the zoo where he was kept. He died of some sort of brain problem.

He is going to be made into a full body mount apparently. His body parts will be used for specimens for scientific research.

We fly tiers need to step up to the plate to help with the scientific research.

I thought several of us might volunteer to tie some streamers using bits of spare polar bear hair. Ideas that come to mind include: 1. do investigations of how well a streamer works when tied of bear hair as opposed to the same streamer tied with bucktail, 2. get some really vintage bear hair, and compare the tying ease and effectiveness of the new vs the vintage hair, 3. tie a bunch of streamers, some very sparcely tied, some tied with a heavy wing, some with moderate amounts of winging, etc., and evaluate the effectiveness of the amount of hair in the wing.

The point is that if the bear mount is set up near the back wall of the display, he might have a lot of hide that faces the wall that can be used for tying, er....ah....well....I mean scientific testing.

I will be glad to be the first offer to do some testing. You may want to sign up also. We need to contact the zoo and offer our services. It may be an idea whos time has come....well....maybe.

Regards,

Gandolf

Very noble of you to offer such a great sacrifice in the name of science. Surely you'll be getting a call from them any minute now.... :)

Yeah, just what we need, another full animal mount sitting around collecting dust. Why not, sell the hide to the fly tying community where it won't go to waste? Let them make a wooden facsimile of the bear. Less maintenance - and the fly tying community can have an opportunity that they seldom get - some polar bear hair. Of course paranoia will prevail and common sense will once again take a back seat! Squirrel tails are used a lot in the making of flies yet there are millions of these tree rats everywhere - go figure!

Best regards, Dave S.

Too funny. Brilliant thinking though, I like were your heart is.

My wife and I are some kind of members at the Cleveland zoo and we sponsor an animal every year bought some bricks with our kids name on it et al you know throw the zoo a bone so to speak and for it they give you zoo passes, put you name in the news letter and make you feel like a big shot. We feel good about ourselves and is a source of pride to build a legacy.

I could just see the horror on my wife's face as the chip the bricks out of the building and feed a lion baloney because I shaved a stuffed bear for some flies.

Too funny.