orangelionfurandtaxidermy

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

Absolutely stunning Fire & Ice fox. I only have one and she has sold already. I honestly should have kept her, her pale fur is to die for.

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

Red Fox (Cross) | Agnius Narkevičius

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

Pribilof Island Fox (Vulpes lagopus pribilofensis) in Alaska, USA

Photo by Yinan Li || CC BY-NC 4.0

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

welcome to south america, come see all kinds of dogs such as:

smol

tol

foxes but not really

???? creature

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

Your post about the ecological differences between Eurasian & American red foxes makes me wonder if, theoretically, both species were introduced in viable numbers to somewhere suitable for both, if they would either successfully niche partition and coexist, outcompete one another and drive one species to extinction, or hybridize and eventually meld into a single population?

Some European red foxes were introduced to the east coast of the USA and quickly hybridised and were absorbed into the native population. You can still see traits of European reds in some Eastern red fox populations. Here's a couple of Eastern American red foxes that I can see Euro fox traits in:

This one has the European smokey colour morph that isn't really seen in American red foxes except for some Eastern populations

This one has a fairly European face to me. More blocky and with the heavy black face markings that are much more common in Europe.

In some European countries, including the UK, there has been a lot of hybridisation as well. Often this is from fur farm foxes escaping or being released into the wild, but escaped/dumped pet foxes are also causing a lot of hybridisation. In my local area a silver fox was seen running loose about a decade ago, and now a high percentage of the local foxes are partially melanistic, larger than normal (fur farm foxes are bigger than both American and European foxes due to selective breeding) and some have very fluffy, fine coats not seen naturally in European foxes. I highly suspect Chester has some American farm fox in him due to his unusually long and fluffy coat

Some more obvious hybrid examples:

Obviously the traits are more extreme due to being from farmed American fox hybrids rather than wild ones.

Different subspecies, but here's a Scandinavian red fox x American fox hybrid. The cross colour does not exist naturally anywhere in Europe but was deliberately introduced into Scandinavia by people releasing American farmed foxes into the wild in the early to mid 20th Century.

So basically red foxes hybridise super easily, although depending on location many hybrid traits may not be ideal and may eventually fade out due to natural selection. For example, long fluffy coast are useless for UK foxes as they quickly get waterlogged and leave the fox more exposed to the elements. Native UK foxes have short, dense and coarse fur that repels rain and wind, providing excellent protection against even the worst of the UK's weather.

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

Interspecific social interaction between golden jackal (Canis aureus) and red fox (Vulpes vulpes)

In south-western Germany, a territorial single male golden jackal (Canis aureus) was repeatedly photographed showing social interaction with a red fox (Vulpes vulpes) female and her cubs. This unusual behaviour was documented in two subsequent years (August–September 2020 and May–August 2021). The interspecific actions are not limited to encounters of the two species but include interactions such as feeding and related sociopositive behaviours. Thirty-two observations with both species appearing together were recorded within the study period. The observed behaviour raises questions about the coexistence of both species and on interspecific behaviour of wild canids in general. Social isolation of the observed male golden jackal could be one of the potential drivers for the interaction, as Germany is at the current edge of golden jackal distribution in central Europe.

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Just came across this incredible study! Golden jackals have typically always been seen as being competitors with foxes and pushing out/killing them in the same way coyotes do to foxes in America. So to see this kind of friendly social interaction is amazing. Inter-species friendships like this are always fascinating.

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

Made a new website because the old one kinda sucked. I’m not very active on Tumblr anymore but I do like to pop in every now and then because I do still get messages.

New website also has fox tail keychains made by me 👀

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

Some fox pelts from this month. These were tanned by a commercial tannery and came out less nice than my usual stuff.

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

Animals are not toys, decorations or objects for your aesthetic enjoyment They are beings who want to be free to interact with their own kind, live out a natural lifecycle, explore their world, and enact natural behaviours

What gives you the right to use other beings in this way, to make money from their suffering, commodification, and death?

I am asking you, what gives you the right?

I’m not vegan :)

(My animals do not suffer)

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

What morph is Waverly from saveafox? I've never seen a marble fox that pale before (also I'm aware saf sucks)

I think she’s a pale Platinum Cross. Some US lines of Platinum get very pale with age.

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

Running a week long sale on Marble wallhangers

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

Arctic Marble fox softmount (€730 on my website)

Marble raccoondog softmount (€1250 on my website)

Payment plans are also available!

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

Some of the mountable pelts I’ve had on my website over the last weeks (link in bio)

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

heraldic beasts

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

Hi I'm the anon who asked all those fur farm questions! Thanks for taking the time to answer, it was helpful. ❤️

Always happy to help!

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

Hi, I have some fur farm questions if you don't mind answering.

I've seen you mention that Sapphire is questionable. Why is that? Is it bc of the bleeding and CHS? If so, is Mansfield's Pearl also questionable to breed? And can CHS or bleeding issues be bred out or are they inherently part of the color?

On that note, do you have information on other color mutations that are linked to health issues?

Lastly, how does one get into fur farming? It seems really expensive to set up and buy all the foxes, and I struggle to find fur farms to follow online bc of how taboo it is let alone finding farms to buy live stock from, especially of rare mutations. Is finding farms to buy from more of a word of mouth + trust thing? And is mentorship of new farmers a thing or is fur farming too competitive for established farmers to want to do that?

Bonus: feel free to talk about your favorite mutations or anything else you wanna share.

Hi!

Yes Sapphires seem to all carry genetic illnesses. Some look to be only mildly affected, I’ve been following a few foxes friends of me carefully bred after they discovered some of their Pearls are Mansfield Pearls. So far the animals look to be doing ok, so it’s surely not a death sentence.

However I fear not all farms will be so careful about their breeding or using unhealthy animals because they want to get that special color. You’ve probably seen or heard about Mouse, the Sapphire fox Save a Fox bought from Northern Fox and Fur (a fur farm) several years ago.

Sadly Mouse did have severe CHS and had to be euthanised. There are very strong suspicions the farm bred “special needs” animals so the rescue could profit from the sob stories. Eventually Save a Fox bought out the whole farm. As of today it’s still about half filled with foxes because they can’t place the animals anywhere. Every rescue is full.

Mansfield Pearl alters the way in which blood behaves, foxes of this color seem very prone to excessive bleeding. I acquired this female Pearl Cross (suspected Mansfield Pearl Cross) “secondhand” a few years ago from the US. From what I see in the picture, it’s not a place I want to support. However this girl had already been culled for killing her whole litter of pups. When my tanner skinned the fox, they found that the bones were super weak and easy to snap. The skin had an unusual amount of bloodvessels and also the gums and teeth were quite funky. I’m still waiting for the cleaned skull.

In red foxes there’s not that many bad mutations luckily. Pale eyed foxes do experience sensitivity to the sun, we’ve seen them squint in direct sunlight. Mixing Whitemark/Ringneck/Platinum/Georgian (Snow) creates a lethal effect in homozygous form. Platinums can be anemic but it does seem to be worse in certain breeding lines than others. There’s probably others I’m forgetting but sadly there’s not much research being done anymore.

Finding a farm to work with is very hard nowadays. I somehow got myself a contact 5-6 years ago and it’s snowballed from there. The number of farms is very low now though, many of my own contacts have decided to stop farming because it’s essentially two full time jobs for the pay of half a job.

At least here in Europe it’s pretty much impossible to start up your own farm unless you have serious cash. No bank will want to provide you a loan because there’s little money to be made in the industry. Mutation foxes are very rare, most of what is produced is mink fur, arctic fox fur (‘bluefox’) and some raccoondog fur. You’ll find some Silver and Gold fox, but even those pelts are currently being sold in bulk at rock bottom prices to overseas buyers.

A picture of a Smokey Platinum pup for those who read this whole thing lol. This is a newer mutation for us, last year we had one male and this pup is one of his. Can you see the differences between this cage vs the one the female Pearl Cross lived in (she could barely turn around)? The cage in the background gives a better view of the size. There is also a nest box attached.

[orangelionfurandtaxidermy]

Species: Red Fox (Vuples Vulpes)

Color Morph: Cherry Red (AABB)

Possible in nature: Yes

Cherry Red is just a variation of the natural red fox color. The easiest way to identify a cherry red fox is the deep red color and the lack of white fur in the inner ear.

Source