Calgary's mouse armourer goes viral, grabs 12M views on National Geographic's Instagram page

Mouse armour by Jeff de Boer (Photo courtesy Jeff de Boer)

A Calgary artist known for his cat and mouse armour has gone viral.

Jeff De Boer, who was profiled on the National Geographic website last week, shared an email he received from National Geographic's social media director concerning a video and photo montage about De Boer that has been posted since Dec. 22.

"The part 1 video on Instagram has gathered more than 12 million views," it said. "The version on TikTok has almost 500K views, both of which are well above our median view rate."

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by National Geographic (@natgeo)

De Boer's unique armour, which he's been making for 36 years, was inspired by his first visit to the Glenbow as a five-year-old when his mom took him to the Calgary museum's armour collection.

“I think that at a very early age, children recognise armour as something interesting, and for me it was really haunting," de Boer told Romey in the interview. “How was this made? Who wore it? Why did they wear it? What were the experiences that that armour had? Those thoughts and ideas have been with me my entire life," he said.

Part 2 of National Geographic's mini-documentary on the Calgary artist will be published on Instagram and TikTok Friday.

Calgary artist Jeff de Boer's mouse armour is featured in the National Geographic (Photo: Twitter@JeffdeBoer9)