FLAT-OUT FASCINATING ROADKILL ON EXHIBIT.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

NEWHALL - Wanted: roadkill. Preferably intact and not too squished.

The dead raccoon in the Placerita Canyon Nature Center freezer is a good example. It drowned in a backyard swimming pool, and the remains were intact, thus making it the perfect candidate for the taxidermist who creates the center's lifelike educational displays.

In the enter's recent ``Rattler'' newsletter, volunteers put out this plea:

``If you see an animal along the road that was killed and who is not missing any body parts, and wasn't squashed too badly, put it in a plastic bag and bring it to the center. It will become a valuable teaching tool to be enjoyed for years to come.''

Thousands of schoolchildren come each year on field trips to learn about California's wildlife at the center, which is in the San Gabriel Mountain foothills outside Santa Clarita and is owned by the state but run by Los Angeles County and volunteers.

The center has a new freezer for holding donated carcasses. It replaced a freezer that broke this summer when it contained ``some birds, hawks, I think a raccoon and maybe a coyote, too,'' said Roger McClure, a docent.

Let's just say the contents were ruined.

``You don't want to go there,'' McClure said Thursday.

A dead bear is what Placerita staffers really want. The center is high on the state Department of Fish and Game's waiting list for getting one.

Motorists aren't supposed to scoop up dead bears, mountain lions and other large creatures. But they can help find the center a suitable skunk, which is difficult for obvious reasons.

``They're particularly hard to get because sometimes when they get hit, they discharge their gland and they're all smelly and I'm not going to take that down to the taxidermist,'' said Bob Moss, a member of the center's Taxidermy Committee.

``If we could get a skunk that can't swim. ...''

The roadkill is taken by volunteers to North Hollywood taxidermist Martin Ramirez, who handles feathers himself but sends the hides of mammals to a Bay Area tannery. Ramirez's signature is the lifelike pose he gives each ``subject.''

``When I work on them, since they're dead, they don't feel anything, I feel like I'm kind of bringing them life,'' Ramirez said. ``I really love doing this, making the animals look like they did in the wild, before they died.''

A stuffed mountain lion donated to the nature center needed some work. Ramirez had the patchy fur fixed and turned the unnatural expression on its mouth to a snarl. Center staffers call the result a work of art and note that the lion appears to frighten the stuffed hawk perched next to it.

To create a stuffed animal, Ramirez fabricates a mold and stretches across it the processed hide, creating wrinkles, musculature and other realistic characteristics. Using synthetics, he replaces cartilage in the ears and adds glass eyes.

When a project involves roadkill, Ramirez uses needle, thread and sometimes glue to repair wounds.

Collecting dead wildlife, McClure says, can require forbearance from spouses. On occasion, McClure will find a dead hawk or other bird and save it.

``I'll leave it in my freezer at home - until my wife finds it and all hell breaks loose,'' he said. ``I've had hawks and owls hanging from my ceiling fan. That freaks my cats out. ... I had a fox on top of my buffet once, glaring at my cats all day long.''

Moss said his wife is equally long-suffering.

``I just got back from Yellowstone with my wife,'' Moss said. ``On my way there and on the way back, we saw what looked like badgers on the roads. I said we ought to empty the cooler out.

``She said, 'No, it's not gonna happen.'''

Patricia Farrell Aidem, [phone]

pat.aidem(at)dailynews.com

GOT ROADKILL?

Pop it in a plastic bag and bring it to the Placerita Canyon Nature Center, 19152 Placerita Canyon Road, Newhall.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) Stuffed animals - some roadkill - are posed in natural positions in exhibits at the Placerita Canyon Nature Center.

David Crane/Staff Photographer

(2 -- ran in SAC and AV editions only) Bob Moss unbags a frozen raccoon that was stored in an animal freezer at the Placerita Canyon Nature Center.

David Crane/Staff Photographer