Kit fox fur

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Kit fox coat (Paris, 1904)

The traditional in the fur industry as a Kit Fox traded furs come from two closely related North American species, the swift fox or steppe fox and the Kit Fox (formerly often Kittfuchs), and long-eared fox (not to be confused with the African Great ear foxes ). Kit fox skins are similar to red foxes in many ways, the main difference being in size and color.

Also those in the auction catalogs of Hudson's Bay and Annings Ltd. The Mongolian kit foxes offered are not kit fox skins, but corsair fox skins .

When the fur animals are divided into the fineness classes silky, fine, medium-fine, coarse and hard, the kit fox hair, as well as the hair of other, hard-haired South American fox species, is classified as coarser.

The IUCN assesses the kit fox as not endangered (Least Concern), in Mexico as endangered (Vulnerable). The swift fox is not considered endangered.

Kit fox fur

The thick-haired and fine kit fox fur has a head body length of 46 to 54 cm and a tail length of 25 to 34 cm. The incidence of the kit fox ranges from the north, from the steppes and prairies of southern Canada and the USA, to Texas and California, and sometimes to the Mexican deserts.

Noticeable are the large ears, which are slightly larger than the Swift Fox and are closer together. The fur is short-haired; light gray, the head and sides of the body are yellowish gray, the outsides of the legs are brownish yellow, the belly and the insides of the legs are yellowish white. Depending on where it comes from, the color is sometimes redder, sometimes lighter. The tip of the tail is black. The fur is thick between the balls of the feet.

Swift fox fur

Already processed Swift fox fur
Photo of Swift fox skins strongly distorted due to aging. It may not have been differentiated between Swift and Kit foxes. The characteristic of the Swift fox can only be seen in the middle coat, the lack of a dark middle coat.

The swift fox inhabits the drier areas of western North America. It differs from the closely related kit fox in its smaller body size and the lack of dark back stripes. The swift fox is the smallest fox species in North America at around 35 to 45 cm; the tail is also around 25 to 30 cm long; females are slightly smaller than males. The coat color is light gray with an orange-brownish tinge on the sides of the body and on the legs. The throat, chest, abdomen and the inside of the ears are cream-colored. The tail is bushy and has a black tip. Both sides of the muzzle are blackish. Compared to the kit fox, its large, triangular ears are smaller.

A distinction is made according to origin:

Canada: Western
USA: Northern, Western

The fur attack is quite low, if only because its occurrence is limited to only a few northern and western regions of the USA and western Canada. Made from very beautiful, high-contrast furs was offered as the Colorado fox (western central USA).

Trade, processing

Swift Fox Coat (2012)
Leather coat with kit fox paw lining (Recklinghausen, 1983)

An American manual for fur traders from 1915 does not yet know the difference between kit and Swift foxes. Only later did the reference to two different species appear in the specialist tobacco literature, both of which are usually also treated together with the Mongolian kit fox, the corsair fox.

Of the two species, the kit foxes from the northern districts (Northern) have the best coat quality, Western the lowest. You have the fullest and silkyest hair. Westerns contain much more 2nd than 1st quality, the winters there are cold but short.

Size designations (inch)
Come here XL L. M. S. colour structure
Canada 36 33 31 30th medium light medium silky
Western USA 32 30th 28 26th dark hair rough

In practice, the heads are usually pretty much the same size. The smaller pelts usually come from younger animals in which the top coat is not fully developed, so they fall under the 3rd and 4th qualities.

The fur is peeled off round, with the hair inwards or outwards, or delivered open.

Around 1858 the Hudson Bay exported 10,000 kit fox skins a year, before 1911 there were only 1,000. In 1970 it was said, “ In the last few years the amount of fur has decreased a lot. According to the latest statistics, 17,000 pieces are given per year ". By 1988 the amount of fur had become so low that exact figures could not be determined.

In 1965 the fur consumption for a fur board with 30 to 40 pelts sufficient for a kit fox coat was specified (so-called coat "body" ). A board with a length of 112 centimeters and an average width of 150 centimeters and an additional sleeve section was used as the basis. This corresponds roughly to a fur material for a slightly exhibited coat of clothing size 46 from 2014. The maximum and minimum fur numbers can result from the different sizes of the sexes of the animals, the age groups and their origin. Depending on the type of fur, the three factors have different effects.

The fur processing corresponds to that of the → gris fox fur . As with most types of fur, every part of the fur is processed by the kit fox. These semi-finished products (kit fox side, head and paw or claw panels) are then preferably processed into fur linings , but also into coats, jackets, vests and other things; the tails serve as trimmings or other garnishes, for example as a key ring. The main place for the recycling of the fur residues in Europe is Kastoria in Greece as well as the smaller town Siatista, which is located nearby .

The thin-leather kit fox fur (Kitt and Swift fox) is used for jackets and coats, trimmings and headgear. An American reference book names 1936 as being used “ almost exclusively as trimmings for women's coats, occasionally a few for trimmings, but only a few ”.

numbers

Detailed trade figures for North American tobacco products can be found at

Emil Brass : From the realm of fur . 1st edition, published by the "Neue Pelzwaren-Zeitung and Kürschner-Zeitung", Berlin 1911
Emil Brass: From the realm of fur . 2nd improved edition, publisher of the "Neue Pelzwaren-Zeitung and Kürschner-Zeitung", Berlin 1925
Emil Brass: From the Realm of Furs (1911) ( Digitalisat  - Internet Archive )
Milan Novak et al, Ministry of Natural Resources: Wild furbearer management and conservation in North America . Ontario 1987 (English). ISBN 0-7778-6086-4
Milan Novak et al., Ministry of Natural Resources: Furbearer Harvests in North America, 1600-1984 , Appendix to the above Wild furbearer management and conservation in North America . Ontario 1987 (English). ISBN 0-7729-3564-5

See also

Commons : Fox fur processing  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Kit fox fur  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Christian Franke / Johanna Kroll: Jury Fränkel ´s Rauchwaren-Handbuch 1988/89 . 10. revised and supplemented new edition, Rifra-Verlag Murrhardt, p. 160
  2. ↑ Paul Schöps, Kurt Häse: The fineness of the hair - the fineness classes . In: Das Pelzgewerbe Vol. VI / New Series, 1955 No. 2, Hermelin-Verlag Dr. Paul Schöps, Leipzig, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, pp. 39–40
  3. ↑ a b c d Max Bachrach: Fur. A Practical Treatise. F Verlag Prentice-Hall, Inc., New York 1936. pp. 291-294 (Eng.)
  4. ↑ From the Ralf Zeidler / NaturalFurs Ltd. collection, model "O-179" . In Die Pelzwirtschaft , issue 12, CB-Verlag Carl Boldt, Berlin December 20, 1980, p. 28.
  5. ^ AR Harding: Fur Buyer's Guide . Self-published, Columbus, Ohio 1915, p. 177 (Eng.)
  6. ↑ Emil Brass : From the realm of fur . Publishing house of the "Neue Pelzwaren-Zeitung and Kürschner-Zeitung", Berlin 1911, pp. 461–462
  7. ↑ Fritz Schmidt : The book of the fur animals and fur . FC Mayer Verlag, Munich 1970, pp. 202-203
  8. ↑ Paul Schöps among others: The material requirement for fur clothing . In: Das Pelzgewerbe Vol. XVI / New Series 1965 No. 1, Hermelin-Verlag Dr. Paul Schöps, Berlin et al., Pp. 7-12. Note: The information for a body was only made to make the types of fur easier to compare. In fact, bodies were only made for small (up to about muskrat size ) and common types of fur, and also for pieces of fur . The following dimensions for a coat body were taken as a basis: body = height 112 cm, width below 160 cm, width above 140 cm, sleeves = 60 × 140 cm.