Meet the taxidermist on a mission to preserve Australia's last flamingo – ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation

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Chile, pictured in 2016, was the last-remaining flamingo in captivity in Australia. (Supplied: Zoos SA)
For more than 135 years, the Adelaide Zoo housed a relatively small but popular exhibit: flamingos.
The flamboyant birds with sunset-feathers lived beside a stone grotto covered with ivy, periodically arching their long necks into a pond fed by a waterfall.
Now, the pond has been drained.
Chile — the nation's last-remaining flamingo in captivity — died earlier this year, meaning Australians must now travel overseas to see the birds close-up.
But a dedicated taxidermist is hoping to change that.
Jo Bain is a taxidermist at the South Australian Museum — and he has a mission. (ABC News: Tony Hill )
"My mission is the same as the zoo's mission," Jo Bain says.
"They want to educate people about wildlife and why it's important. And I do too.
Chile isn't the first flamingo Mr Bain, who works at the South Australian Museum, has been tasked with preserving.
In the late 1800s, the zoo housed up to 10 flamingos.
Only after it was euthanised could keepers confirm Chile was female. (Supplied: Zoos SA)
Over the years, because of unsuccessful breeding attempts — and tightening biosecurity regulations preventing the importation of any more birds — its collection slowly dwindled.
By 1982, only two flamingos remained: Chile, and another flamingo, Greater.
When Greater died in 2014 at an estimated 83 years, he was believed to be the oldest flamingo in captivity anywhere in the world.
Mr Bain says he "just made a pest of myself" until the zoo agreed to give him the bird's body.
"I just thought it was too important to pass up. I wanted it so that we could preserve it and show people how extraordinary it was," he says.
The process of taxidermising Chile will be a painstaking one. (ABC News: Tony Hill )
Chile had arrived at the zoo around 1971, and when she died, devastated staff thought it best she be with Greater.
They knew who to call.
Mr Bain says it's important to get the little things right, like Chile's wrinkled face, or Greater's arthritic ankles.
"It sounds ridiculous, but when you do a taxidermy mount, that animal is the thing that people walk away with and imagine in their head. They become an ambassador," he says.
When Chile died, staff wanted her to be with Greater at the museum. (ABC News: Tony Hill )
When it comes to mounting birds, taxidermists usually insert a metal wire down the back of the leg to get it to stand up.
But Mr Bain says there's a problem with applying that technique to flamingos.
"The bone is less than a centimetre around. Putting a leg wire down the back of the skin doubles the width of its leg. Then when the skin dries it mummifies around that rod," he says.
"So it gives it this weird figure-eight shape."
Earshot meets the iconic flamingo and the taxidermist working to preserve it.
As a result, Mr Bain has been working on a new process that's never been used on flamingos.
"If you look at our hands, there's all sorts of lines and wrinkles and veins," he says.
"When you do conventional taxidermy, you skin a hand out, and replace the material with other materials."
When the skin dries, it can look more like a glove than a hand; minus the lines and wrinkles and veins.
His new technique will see him make silicon rubber moulds of the bird's feet and face, and then use warm water to "macerate out the skin".
"You then fibreglass into that with properly coloured fibreglass, then you dissolve away the silicone rubber," he explains.
"You end up with skin that looks natural, with every wrinkle preserved."
Mr Bain has a passion for preserving dead animals in a way that maintains their natural beauty. (ABC News: Tony Hill )
While the painstaking process of taxidermising Greater and Chile will take a long time, Mr Bain — and the zoo — are hopeful it will allow the public to maintain their connection to the flamingos.
One day, the pair will be displayed together.
"They were popular with generations," Dr Phil Ainsley from the Adelaide Zoo says of the now-defunct exhibit.
"You'd have grandparents, and their children, and their children, coming through and they've all seen the flamingos."
Earshot is about people, places, stories and ideas, in all their diversity.
After Chile died, there was an outpouring of public grief.
"People would leave memorials. Plush toys and photos that people had taken, messages of condolence and farewell, from children to adults," Dr Ainsley says.
The public had so much love for Chile that staff even noted seeing flowers in the flamingo exhibit almost three months later.
Dr Ainsley remembers his own home life being affected by Chile's passing.
"I was putting my youngest son to bed, and he asked, 'How was your day at the zoo today, daddy?' and I said, 'Oh it was a hard day. We had to euthanise Chile'," he recalls.
"I was surprised by the outburst of emotion from an eight year old, who was absolutely devastated.
"That may be the last flamingo that he'll see in Australia."
But not if Mr Bain has anything to do with it.
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