Over the years, Lloyd Esler has recreated the skeletons of creatures ranging in size from rats to ostriches.
But the Invercargill teacher, historian, author and tour guide is particularly excited about his latest challenge - assembling his first sea turtle skeleton.
"This is the first time I have had a reptile, so the anatomy is quite different. There are a lot of bones that mammals and birds just don't have.''
There are seven varieties of sea turtle, none of which live anywhere near Southland.
Nevertheless, Mr Esler was told about the remains of a turtle on a beach at Waipapa Point, on the southern coast near Fortrose, and collected the carcass in October.
"Several a year turn up live in New Zealand, mostly in the Far North. What's probably happened is this critter has come down from the tropics ... and drifted across Foveaux Strait. We do get a few visits from turtles from time to time, but this is the only one I have heard of in 20 years.
"This guy or gal - you can tell from the number of spurs on the flippers but this one's flippers were missing - has probably died at sea and been nibbled for about a month before I found him. Gulls have probably scavenged him as well.''
Sea turtles were protected and could not be killed or sold, Mr Esler said.
But he had contacted the Department of Conservation and was told he could keep the skeleton for educational purposes.
While some of the extremities are missing, he has the important parts including the upper and lower shells and the skull.
He has not counted the individual bones but they fill a small cardboard box, and he plans to assemble them with a glue gun after they have dried.
"I was thinking of wiring [the skeleton] but bones are actually pretty fragile - they are quite thin and porous and wire is not really going to hold it.
''Mr Esler estimates the assembly process will take only a day or two.
"I have a fairly good idea how the bones go together. I have been looking on the internet. Where would we be without the internet?''
He plans to hang the skeleton on the wall of his Otatara home, where it will be surrounded by about 50 different complete skeletons plus a myriad of other objects, creatures or parts of creatures he has collected or been given and either assembled, stuffed or recreated in fibreglass.
They include shells, stones and fossils, the skulls of everything from tiny birds to a horse, a pickled octopus in a jar, a water snake and taxidermied predators such as possums, ferrets and hedgehogs.
"They are useful as props. When I am visiting schools I do a lot of talking about birds and animals and anatomy.''
One of the largest skeletons is of an albatross he found on a beach when he was about 12 and living in Auckland.
His said his father was very interested in the natural world and he became hooked himself from a young age.
Mr Esler said he had kept dead creatures in his freezer for many years and had to be careful when selecting food items.
"When I was a boy I used to freeze things in pea packets so they attracted less attention. One day I arrived home from school and my mother was pretty grim-faced because she had cut the end off a pea packet and tipped the contents into boiling water and [what came out] was a frozen rat. There was only one person to pin the blame on and it was me.''
