TULALIP — Wild animal pelts, handmade toy boats and duck calls highlighted Cabela’s Fall Great Outdoor Days Aug. 15-16.

Tom Fowler, of the Seattle Puget Sound chapter of Safari Club International, showed off the furs of bears, raccoons, cougars, badgers, possums, skunks, nutrias, bobcats and otters native to the area, along with an arctic fox and a mountain goat, as part of a “sensory safari.”

Fowler explained the Safari Club has spent $2 million on wildlife conservation efforts in Washington, including the purchase of dogs to allow bears to be herded without having to be shot, as well as the relocation of sheep and the reintroduction of antelope.

“We work with Native American tribes and the Department of Fish and Wildlife to restore habitat and educate children and adults alike,” Fowler said.

“It’s kinda cool,” said Marysville’s Albert Maldonado, as his 4-year-old daughter, Leah, touched the animal skins. “I didn’t know this was going on, but I like to see stuff like this.”

Holly Lindsay also wasn’t expecting to encounter the Great Outdoor Days when she and her 4-year-old daughter, Sadie, stopped by the store that Sunday.

“We’re heading back to Cashmere, after visiting family in Birch Bay,” Lindsay said, as her daughter assembled and decorated a miniature wooden boat. “We’ve been to this Cabela’s several times, though. We live right on Mission Creek, so she can sail this boat down there.”

Tolmie Ratcliff, with the Center for Wooden Boats, sees building toy boats as a stepping stone to getting comfortable with full-sized ships.

“It lets them use their imagination,” said Ratcliff, who enjoys handling the boats at Camano Island. “I feel in love with the boathouse there. It has a huge history, and they keep the boats consistent with the histories of their time periods.”

Chris Straiter, the Everett area chair of Ducks Unlimited, didn’t have as interactive a booth, aside from the duck call that Amber Blakney was reluctant to use. He nonetheless offered a wealth of knowledge about his group’s wetland protection efforts in the area, which Jennifer Stahl of Northwest Fishing Guides confirmed helps area salmon as well.

“If they didn’t do what they do, we wouldn’t have any fish to fish,” said Stahl, who was Straiter’s predecessor as area chair.

“We don’t measure it state by state, since our work impacts the whole continent,” Straiter said, adding that Ducks Unlimited has saved 13 million acres in North America, and positively influenced 135 million more. “We’re able to take a million dollars and multiply it sixteen or eighteen times, because we understand biology and engineering.”