Alaska (rabbit breed)
The Alaska is a medium-sized (3.25 to 4 kg), monochrome black breed of rabbits .
The genetic formula of Alaska is
ABCDg (German symbols) or aBCDE (English symbols)
History of the breed
Similar to other breeds, the Alaska rabbit was bred with the desire to imitate a noble fur animal. In the case of the Alaska rabbits, the model was the black Alaska fox , after which the breed was named. In particular, M. Fischer from Gotha endeavored to outbred the breed . Russian , Havana , Dutch and black and silver rabbits were his starting breeds . In 1907 the Alaska rabbits were first presented at a show. Two breeding directions of the Alaska rabbit appeared after a short time, while one part of the breeders aimed for the Alaska rabbit with a purely black fur, the other tried to breed the Alaska rabbit with long white guard hairs in order to better imitate the fox fur. However, since these guard hairs clearly protrude beyond the rest of the fur in fox fur, which is not the case with rabbits, this goal was rejected again, but the white enforcement in some breeds of Alaska rabbits was a problem for decades. Friedrich was breeding parallel to Fischer in Gotha Joppich , then still living in Switzerland, a black rabbit of the same name from Schwärzlingen the English piebald . Today the Alaska rabbit is a common breed that can often be seen at exhibitions.
Similar races
The black Viennese are significantly larger at 4.25 to 5.25 kg. Pure black is also permitted as a color shade or drawing color in other breeds.
literature
- W. Schlohlaut: The big book of the rabbit. 2nd Edition. DLG-Verlag, Frankfurt 1998, ISBN 3-7690-0554-6 .
- F. Joppich: The rabbit. VEB Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1967.
- R. sacrifice man: Alaska rabbits. In: rabbits. 10/1997, ISSN 0941-0848 .