List of types of fur
Each follicle on a chinchilla's body produces 60 hairs, making the fur the densest of any land-dwelling mammal.
[3] Beaver fur has long been used in making muffs, stoles, collars, trimmings, and felt for hats.
[4] The American beaver scores a 90/100 on the Austin Fur Durability chart[5] making it practical for utilitarian items such as linings.
[4] The trapping of fishers is restricted in many States leading to it becoming a more uncommon type of fur in comparison to the mink.
[13] North American red foxes, particularly those of northern Alaska, are the most valued for their fur, as they have guard hairs of a very silky texture that, after dressing, provide less restricted mobility to the wearer.
[14] Red foxes in southern Alaska's coastal areas and the Aleutian Islands are an exception, as they have extremely coarse pelts that rarely exceed a third of the price of their northern Alaskan cousins.
[16] The greatest source of fox pelts is from fur farms located in Scandinavia, Canada, the United States, Russia, and China.
As time progressed farmers started to produce foxes of various colors such as marble (white with a different colored stripe down the back), platinum (light silver with white face and neck marking), and amber (a light brown).
[25] Although no longer popular globally, in Russia and other nations of the former Soviet Union, golden jackals are considered furbearers, albeit ones of low quality due to their sparse, coarse and monotonously colored fur.
In the early 1930s, 20–25 thousand jackal skins were tanned annually in the Soviet Union, though the stocks were significantly underused, as over triple that amount could have been produced.
[26] Jackal fur is still valued by the Kazakh people along the Caspian shoreline, as it is lighter and warmer than sheepskin.
Due to CITES regulations, special permits are required to trap, sell, and own lynx furs.
[4] The American pine marten sports a reddish brown coat and an orange-tinted throat, but their numbers in the wild were depleted until after the turn of the century.
The pelt of a marten possesses an oily texture similar to mink, but a longer silky hair such as a fox.
Sunlight gradually fades its original dark brown color a warmer tone, making it less attractive with time.
Wild mink are small mammals, males weighing 1 kg (2 lb 3 oz), making them difficult to work into a full garment.
Raccoon fur is mottled gray in color and about two and one-half inches long on animals from northern United States.
[41] Due to the finnraccoons' omivourous diet and adaptable nature, they're illegal to import live into the United States so can only be farmed in Asia and Europe.
Russia still controls the world's sable supply with auctions for their furs in the region still demanding high prices.
This makes lamb a more ethical choice for people who are opposed to the killing of animals strictly for their fur.
[47] Wolf pelts are primarily used for scarfs and the trimmings of women's garments, though they are occasionally used for jackets, short capes, coats,[48] mukluks and rugs.
These characteristics are mostly found in northern wolf populations, but gradually lessen further south in warmer climates.
[50] In Medieval Europe, pelts were considered the only practical aspect of wolves, though they were seldom used, due to the skin's foul odour.
[55] The United States Army used wolf skin for parkas during the later stages of WWII and the Korean War to protect the faces of soldiers from frostbite.
Overall, the harvesting of wolves for their fur has little impact on their population, as only the northern varieties (whose numbers are stable) are of commercial value.
[49] The skin of the common brushtail possum were used as cloaks by Aboriginal people in south-eastern Australia prior to European colonization.
[57] The Australian brushtail possum (paihamu in Maori) was introduced to New Zealand in 1837, where unlike Australia, there are no natural predators.
This has resulted in an enormous wild population, approximately 70 million, that has a catastrophic effect on natural vegetation.
Not to be confused with the North American opossum, a different animal, the paihamu eat their way through an estimated 20,000 tonnes of greenery each night.
Since the mid-1990s, New Zealand manufacturers have been developing techniques to spin the hollow possum fur fibres with other yarns, such as merino wool and silk, creating a unique fabric of incomparable quality, warmth and durability.
