NORWICH – After nearly two decades of mixing art and commerce as the owner of Unique Artistic Services, painter and sculptor Stephen Brois is currently involved in a project that’s – literally – for the birds.

A resident staff artist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City for six years, Brois has spent the past six to seven months in his North Broad Street apartment and studio sculpting a pair of realistic, life-sized recreations of an African zebra and gazelle, to be displayed at the Al Ain Wildlife Park and Resort in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The pieces, however, are much more than just visual props, said Brois.

Located on the western border of the UAE, the Al Ain Wildlife Park and Resort is a unique oasis settlement where visitors can learn of arid-land wildlife and conservation through vivid, first-hand experience, according to Brois. The zebra and gazelle sculptures will be utilized as feeding troughs for the park’s resident vulture and marabou stork populations.