Montana Taxidermy Laws: License Requirements, Permits, and Penalties Explained

Mounting a trophy elk in your own garage is legal in Montana without a license. Charging your neighbor $200 to mount his is not, unless you’ve paid the state $50 and hold a valid taxidermist license. That distinction trips up more hobbyists-turned-side-hustlers than almost any other wildlife regulation in the state.

Montana taxidermy laws blend state licensing rules under the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) with a separate layer of federal oversight for migratory birds, eagles, and threatened or endangered species. Skipping either layer can mean fines, license revocation, or worse. This guide walks through exactly when a license is required, which species you can legally mount, and where to apply so you stay compliant on both fronts.

Do You Need a Taxidermy License or Permit in Montana?

Montana law defines the trigger clearly: state statute describes a taxidermist as a person who conducts a business for the purpose of mounting, preserving, or preparing all or part of the dead bodies of any wildlife. If you’re operating that kind of business, you need a license first.

Under Montana Code Annotated 87-4-201, before conducting the business of a taxidermist, a taxidermist shall obtain from the department a taxidermist’s license and pay an annual license fee of $50. That license doesn’t run on a calendar year, either. The license expires on February 28 of the year following issuance, so mark your renewal date well ahead of hunting season crunch.

The application itself is straightforward. FWP’s taxidermist license application confirms the same requirement: a person who engages in conducting taxidermy business must first obtain from the director a taxidermist’s license and pay an annual license fee of $50. Applications and renewals run through FWP’s Buy and Apply portal.

Pro Tip: Renew before February 28, not on it. A lapsed license means you’re legally unable to accept new mounts until it’s reinstated, even if the delay is just a few days.

Commercial Taxidermy vs Mounting Your Own Legally Taken Wildlife in Montana

The license requirement hinges on one word: business. If you shoot a whitetail on your own tag and mount it yourself for your own wall, you’re not required to hold a taxidermist license. The moment you start mounting wildlife for other people, especially for pay, you cross into licensed-business territory.

That personal-use exemption only works if the animal was taken legally in the first place. Montana’s broader hunting laws govern tags, seasons, and possession limits, and a mount built on an illegally taken animal is a problem regardless of who did the taxidermy work. If you’re unsure whether your harvest documentation is in order, that’s worth confirming before the animal ever reaches the tanning stage.

Road-killed animals add another wrinkle. Montana treats salvage of roadkill under its own set of rules, separate from hunting harvest, and those rules affect what a taxidermist can legally accept from a client who found rather than hunted an animal. Reviewing Montana’s roadkill laws before taking on a salvaged specimen helps avoid accepting wildlife you can’t legally possess or mount.

What Species You Can and Cannot Mount in Montana (Game, Nongame, and Unprotected)

Montana wildlife falls into three broad buckets for taxidermy purposes, and each one carries different paperwork. Game species, think deer, elk, pronghorn, black bear, and upland birds, can be mounted once you can show they were taken under a valid license and tag during an open season. A licensed taxidermist accepting a game mount should be able to trace it back to that legal harvest.

Nongame protected species are far more restrictive. Songbirds, raptors, and other nongame wildlife generally cannot be possessed, let alone mounted, without specific state or federal authorization, because most of these species fall under separate legal protection outside the ordinary game-harvest system. This category overlaps heavily with the federal migratory bird rules covered in the next section.

Unprotected species, certain furbearers and predators taken under Montana’s trapping and predator regulations, generally carry fewer restrictions once legally taken, but “unprotected” doesn’t mean “unregulated.” A taxidermist still needs to confirm the client’s harvest was lawful under Montana’s hunting laws before accepting the specimen for mounting.

Category	Examples	What’s Required
Game species	Deer, elk, black bear, upland birds	Valid license/tag proving legal harvest
Nongame protected	Songbirds, hawks, owls	Federal/state permit; personal possession generally prohibited
Unprotected/furbearer	Certain predators, furbearers	Legal take under trapping/hunting regs

Federal Overlay You Still Must Follow: Migratory Bird Taxidermy Permits (MBTA)

A Montana taxidermist license doesn’t automatically cover migratory birds. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act regulations layer a separate federal permit on top of state licensing, and both have to be in place simultaneously. Under 50 CFR Part 21, a taxidermist permit is required before any person may perform taxidermy services on migratory birds or their parts, nests, or eggs for any person other than himself.

The two permits are legally linked. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, if your State requires you to have a permit to perform taxidermy on migratory game birds, you must hold a valid State permit in order for your Federal permit to be valid. Skip the Montana license and your federal permit becomes worthless too.

Tagging matters just as much as the permit itself. You can receive and mount migratory game birds taken and possessed in accordance with applicable Federal and State hunting regulations, and all such birds must be properly tagged; the tag may be removed during taxidermy operations but must be retained and reattached after mounting, and must remain attached until the specimen is delivered to the owner.

Nongame migratory birds carry the tightest restrictions of all. Protected nongame birds such as songbirds, hawks, and owls can be legally brought to a taxidermist by game wardens, Federal agents, or holders of appropriate State and Federal permits, and once mounted, these birds can be legally possessed only by public scientific and educational institutions or individuals with a valid Special Purpose Possession Dead permit; personal possession of nongame birds is prohibited. A handful of species are exempt from this entirely: English sparrows, common starlings, and feral pigeons (rock doves) are not native to the United States and are not protected by Federal law.

Applications go through your regional office. Submit application for taxidermist permits to the appropriate Regional Director, Attention: Migratory bird permit office. Full guidance sits on the USFWS Migratory Bird Permits page.

Endangered, Threatened, and CITES Specimens in Montana

Montana is home to species that sit under some of the strictest federal protections in the country. The grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis), for example, remains protected in parts of the Lower 48 under the Endangered Species Act, meaning a mount involving one requires far more than a state taxidermist license before you touch it. The same caution applies to bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), which carry their own layer of federal protection separate from ordinary migratory bird rules.

Eagles specifically fall outside the standard MBTA taxidermy permit process. The Fish and Wildlife Service notes that the Service issues permits for activities such as taxidermy, and the regulations governing migratory bird and eagle permits can be found in 50 CFR part 13, part 21, and part 22 (Eagle Permits), a separate regulatory track entirely.

CITES-listed specimens, ivory, certain furs, and parts from internationally protected species, add an import/export permit requirement on top of everything else if the item crossed a national border at any point in its history. If a client brings you something with an unclear origin, particularly anything that may have been imported, treat it as a red flag rather than a routine mount. This is similar in spirit to the documentation concerns covered in Montana’s pet import laws, where paperwork determines legality as much as the animal itself does.

Important Note: Federal endangered species and CITES rules change species-by-species and are enforced separately from Montana’s taxidermist licensing statute. When in doubt about a specimen’s legal status, contact USFWS Law Enforcement before accepting the work, not after.

Recordkeeping, Tagging, and Inspection Rules for Taxidermists in Montana

Montana’s recordkeeping requirements for taxidermists are detailed and non-negotiable. Under MCA 87-4-201(3), a taxidermist shall keep a written record of all the articles of wildlife in the taxidermist’s possession or control, including the kind and number of each article of wildlife, the name and residence of the owner of the article, and all the articles of wildlife shipped and to whom and where shipped.

How long do those records need to stick around? Longer than most people assume. The taxidermist shall keep the written record for as long as the articles of wildlife remain in the possession of the taxidermist or at least 5 years, whichever is longer, and these records must be open to inspection by a warden or the director at any reasonable time. There’s no advance-notice requirement for that inspection, either.

If you’re also working migratory birds under a federal permit, the federal recordkeeping standard runs parallel to the state one, not in place of it. Permittees must keep accurate records of operations, on a calendar year basis, showing the names and addresses of persons from and to whom migratory birds or their parts, nests, or eggs were received or delivered, the number and species of such, and the dates of receipt and delivery. That’s a second, distinct paper trail on top of Montana’s 5-year rule.

• Log every article of wildlife received, by species and quantity
• Record the owner’s name and residence for each item
• Track where and to whom mounted items are shipped
• Hold records for at least 5 years, or longer if the item is still in your shop
• Keep migratory bird records on a separate calendar-year federal log if you hold a federal permit

Unclaimed Mounts: Can a Taxidermist Sell Abandoned Work in Montana?

Every shop has one, a finished mount the client never came back for. Montana’s taxidermy statute doesn’t spell out a dedicated abandoned-property procedure specific to taxidermy work, which leaves taxidermists relying on general commercial lien and abandoned-property principles rather than a taxidermy-specific script.

In practice, that means the burden falls on the taxidermist’s paperwork. A clear intake contract that states a pickup deadline, storage fees after that deadline, and the shop’s right to sell or dispose of unclaimed work after a defined notice period gives you something to point to if a dispute arises later. Without that written agreement, you’re leaning entirely on general abandoned-property law, which can be slower and less predictable to apply.

Important Note: Montana does not appear to have a single statute dedicated specifically to abandoned taxidermy mounts. Because general lien and abandoned-property law can vary by situation, talk to an attorney about your intake contract language rather than assuming informal shop policy will hold up if challenged.

Penalties for Unlicensed Taxidermy or Illegal Possession in Montana

Montana doesn’t treat taxidermy licensing violations as a minor paperwork slip. Under MCA 87-6-703, a person convicted of a violation related to the licensing and recordkeeping of taxidermists shall be fined not less than $50 or more than $1,000 or be imprisoned in the county detention center for not more than 6 months, or both.

The consequences don’t stop at the fine. The person, upon conviction or forfeiture of bond or bail, may be subject to forfeiture of any current hunting, fishing, or trapping license and the privilege to hunt, fish, or trap in Montana for a period of time set by the court, and the taxidermist’s license of the person convicted may be revoked by the court. A single conviction can cost you both your business license and your personal hunting privileges at once.

Illegal possession of protected wildlife carries its own separate exposure under Montana’s broader wildlife and cruelty framework, and the two can overlap when an unlicensed mount involves an animal that wasn’t legally taken to begin with. It’s worth reviewing Montana’s animal cruelty laws if you’re ever unsure whether a specimen’s origin raises concerns beyond simple licensing.

Federal violations run on a separate track entirely. Because MBTA and Endangered Species Act violations are enforced by federal agents independent of state penalties, a taxidermist could face state and federal consequences from the same unlicensed mount if it involved a federally protected species.

Where to Apply and Who to Call in Montana (Wildlife Agency + USFWS)

For the Montana state license, everything routes through FWP. The taxidermist license application is available through FWP’s commercial and scientific permits section, and renewals or new applications can be submitted through the Buy and Apply portal online. If you run into account or licensing system issues, the FWP Licensing Call Center can be reached at (406) 444-2950.

For the federal migratory bird taxidermy permit, the process runs through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rather than FWP. Applications go to your appropriate Regional Director, Attention: Migratory bird permit office, and full instructions, including the application form and FAQ, are posted on the Migratory Bird Taxidermy Application page.

If your work touches eagles, endangered species, or anything with international origin, contact USFWS directly before accepting the specimen rather than after. The general Migratory Bird Permits overview page is the fastest way to find the right regional contact for your situation.

Need	Agency	Resource
State taxidermist license	Montana FWP	Buy and Apply portal, (406) 444-2950
Migratory bird taxidermy permit	USFWS Regional Director	Migratory Bird Permit Office
Endangered species/eagle questions	USFWS Law Enforcement	Regional office contact

Getting licensed is the easy part. Staying compliant means matching every mount to a legal harvest, keeping five years of records on hand, and knowing exactly when a federal permit needs to sit alongside your Montana license. Handle those three things consistently, and the rest of running a taxidermy business in Montana comes down to craft rather than paperwork risk.