#also Olliver why do you have a mask like a ferret. are you some sort of hybrid? can stoats and domestic ferrets hybridize?

[blorbologist]

OKAY OKAY OKAY

So I wasn't sure if this was just not relevant to Burrow's End, but Bennett being described as having his white winter coat come in has me thinking....

Why is Ava in her winter coat when no one else is?

As someone who has done character design before (and calico is a thing in cats, not stoats, so they are already playing with the realism for distinct and fun looks) I do acknowledge that it's likely just 'oh she's old and grey but she's an animal so it's her Whole Body'. And until this tidbit that's what I was happy to think of it, given that factor of their biology didn't seem to come up despite Burrow's End being set in the fall (I think? Can't find a solid ref atm).

But as Aabria notes, stoats change color during the winter, to better blend with the snow. Like this:

... and maybe it's not just 'haha she's old'.

There's circumstantial evidence of humans going shock white (I had a teacher growing up who had), which is pretty debated... but, y'know, this is far more feasible a concept to get behind with a species that grows a white coat every year. She just never lost it again.

Maybe she's stuck in time, the most stressful time of her life, and her body thinks it's always winter. Perhaps it was a change, and she went from having coats more like Tula's (Viola seems to take after Kenji) to keeping her white coat no matter the season. Or maybe loss of much of her litter during that harsh winter kept her in that state.

Or maybe, looking at her again, she's albino. She doesn't have the distinct black tip stoats keep over winter (or was her tailtip bitten off? Hard to tell), but the black nose would say otherwise.

I just take animal coloration too seriously and it's fascinating to poke at. Not something I can research in my field, At All, but! Hey!

We'll know more when we see these 20+ year stoats mentioned in the preview, I'm sure.

But! Very curious.