Exporting Regulations
exporting trophies
Hotfire Safaris will carefully handle the animal to preserve its skin, horns, head or body, once it is shot. A local taxidermist will prepare the animal further for export to your home country. Trophies can be exported "raw" or "mounted".
Due to various regulations regarding "raw" exports, the easiest and simplest solution is to have your trophies mounted by a South African taxidermist. Export permits are required for all trophies (finished or dip & pack) whether they may be for ordinary permits, Cites or TOPS species.
Raw Exports
Hotfire will prepare the skin and horns according to your specifications and lay them in salt. It will take a couple of weeks to dry before they are delivered to the taxidermist. Transporting wet skins is not a good idea as hair loss easily occurs if they get too hot (you'll only notice this once the skins are being treated prior to mounting).
For the trophies to be shipped raw, they have to go through a process called "Dip, Pack and Crating" at the taxidermist, which is a cleaning and sterilising procedure. Once the trophies have undergone treatment in the dip, pack and crating process (usually 6 - 8 weeks) they are packed into crates ready for shipment. At this stage the relevant export permits should have been issued by the Nature Conservation authorities. The health certificate is then applied for based on the size of your crate and when this is received, it is then collected by the shipping company for forwarding to your taxidermist back home.
Mounted Exports
South African taxidermists are exceptionally good at mounting the species of Africa. They have all the correct moulds and experience to perform a fine job and do so at a reduced rate. Usually, even after crating and shipment, South African taxidermists are 20-30% cheaper than foreign operators.
They can take anything from 6 months to a year to complete the work, but this is a reasonable time period when compared with taxidermists overseas. Often, if your skins are damaged they have easy access to additional skins for restoration or replacement at a nominal fee.
