In a country of 1.3 billion people, it’s hard to imagine there’s only one of anything. But Santosh Anant Gaikwad may well be India’s last wildlife taxidermist.

A veterinarian and professor of anatomy at Bombay Veterinary College, the 44-year-old Mumbai native became interested in the obscure art after a 2003 visit to the city’s main museum (formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum).

Inspired by the lifelike quality of the natural history collection’s mammal and bird specimens, Gaikwad felt compelled to learn the technique himself—although he’d never previously even heard the word taxidermy. (See the pictures: How do you move hundreds of taxidermy animals?)

Gaikwad resolved to teach himself, as the only other taxidermists he could find