Rabbit

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Tan rabbit

The loh rabbit is a small breed of rabbit (weight 2.5 to 3.25 kg).

Appearance

In terms of color, the tan rabbit is characterized by a single-colored, dark upper side, red-yellow ( tan-colored ) underside and underside of the flower. The head drawing includes the tan-colored circles under the eyes, tan-colored edging of the nostrils, edging of the chin cheeks and tan-colored ear edging, which continues in the neck wedge. At the point of attachment of the ears there is a tan-colored spot, also known as "Krönli" in Switzerland. The tan color of the belly should be sharply demarcated from the surface color. This color distribution is achieved through a combination of the Loh factor (better to be called the badge preservation factor according to Hochstrasser), a mutation of the wild color factor, in which the distribution of the color zones in rabbit hair is canceled, but the typical wild color badges are retained, with the so-called yellow enhancer, the to leads to a particularly intensive development of the yellow pigment in rabbit fur . The tan rabbit is recognized in the colors black, brown ( havana-colored ), blue and feh-colored.

The hereditary formulas are:

  • black: ABCDg0y2y3 ... (German symbols) or atBCDE (English symbols)
  • brown: ABcDg0yy3 ... (German symbols) or atbCDE (English symbols)
  • blue: ABCdg0y3 ... (German symbols) or atBCdE (English symbols)

The physique is characterized by a rather compact shape. The legs are rather small and stocky compared to the body. The tart rabbit also has relatively round, large ears and a broad shoulder.

History of the breed

The story of the little rabbit was presented in detail by Hochstrasser in 1999; the information given here is based on his research. After his intensive literature research the tart rabbits were bred for the first time in 1887 by Reverend Cox, who found the animals in one of his rabbit enclosures in the "grounds of Culland Hall near Brailsford in Derbyshire ", in which in addition to "pale" (pale yellow or light wild colored) rabbits also Dutch rabbits and silver rabbits were kept. The keeping of rabbits in semi-wild form in large enclosures was widespread in Great Britain at the time . It is to be expected that the mutation had been present for a long time, but had not been taken into account until then. Hochstrasser, for example, attributes the Russian rabbits described by Charles Darwin with a light flower underside to a combination of the Russian factor with the wage or badge preservation factor. From 1887 onwards, the "new" mutation was bred in the direction of its own breed. The animals found by Cox were not yet tan like today's tan rabbits, but the markings were only cream-colored. Today's yellow-orange markings were only achieved by crossing rabbits, whereby the yellow enhancers there got into the tan rabbits and resulted in the typical tan color. Through various approaches that have been taken in the further breeding and the desired improvement of the race, there are two different strokes of the early tan rabbit, the original, smaller Brailsford type and by crossing developed hare rabbit resulting Cheltenham type.

The first (separate) specialty clubs for the breed emerged in Great Britain in 1890; the Black and Tan Club preferred the original, smaller Brailsford type of tan rabbit, and the British Black and Tan Rabbit Club preferred the Cheltenham type. In the course of time, the Cheltenham type prevailed, the Black-and-Tan-Club disbanded and the tart rabbit emerged in the form known today.

Richard Rotloff from Ehrenfriedersdorf in the Ore Mountains imported the rabbit into Germany in 1896, according to his own statements on February 28th . The first tan rabbits were probably exhibited in Germany as early as 1897, and black (black-and-tan) and blue (blue-and-tan) tan rabbits were already included in the 1898 standard. After a certain decline in breeding due to the First World War, new imports from Great Britain followed in the twenties. The breeding of the rabbits experienced a further setback when the breed was classified as a "sport breed" by the Reichsfachausschuss Rabbits of the Reich Association of German Small Animal Breeders in 1936 and the breeders of sport breeds were forced to breed a "club breed" from the group of recognized commercial breeds alongside their actual breed . After the Second World War and the elimination of these restrictions, the breed took off again and is now one of the more common breeds and can be seen regularly at exhibitions, especially in black.

Hochstrasser provides the following information about the development of the individual color strokes:

The black one is the color originally found by Cox.

The blue color was bred by Albert Atkinson from Huddersfield shortly after the tale rabbits became known by crossing a black tease with a Madagascan rabbit. (According to other information, the animal was sooty yellow or tortoiseshell (tortoiseshell color), all of these colors describe an animal that is colored similar to a light Thuringian ). The color type is mentioned for 1894, in 1898 it is said to have been well developed. It is unclear when the first Blauloh came to Germany; probably they fell out of the Schwarzloh imported by Rottloff by splitting up. Both colors are mentioned in the first German standard.

The Braunloh was apparently bred independently several times in different countries by combining it with Havana rabbits . The first standard to describe it is the Dutch standard of 1916. In England, the Braunloh was developed in 1920 by Childs in Cambridge . Havana-colored tinsel is said to have existed in Germany as early as 1909, but has disappeared again. In 1926/1927 Karl Böck from Fürth brought out the new color scheme; Max Reiher from Treuen and Gottfried Schubert from Chemnitz contributed to the further improvement .

The Fehloh rabbit (with the color of the Marburger Feh ) was also created several times independently of one another by different breeders, such as Franz Edinger Darmstadt , 1924 to 1936, Richard Horstmann, Wilster ("after the Second World War"), and Wilhelm Ellermann, Heeren-Werve 1951. Before the Second World War, feh-colored tan were issued as "Darmstädter Fehloh". The breeder Bernd Hahnewald from Großräschen applied for approval of Fehloh as a color variety in 1994, after his death the "Fehloh Rabbit Interest Group" founded by Franz Schnieder continued the work and in 2004 Fehloh was approved as the fourth color type in Germany. Fehloh are also known in the Netherlands (Tan, gouwenaar) and Great Britain (Lilac and Tan).

Other colors: Silberloh were allowed for a time, but disappeared again. The Karlsbader Goldloh evidently resembled Sachsengold in appearance ; for the Thrianta , the hereditary formula of a tan rabbit with a yellow covering color is also given in the Dutch standard.

Similar races

The white-awn rabbit shows in its drawing, which differs slightly from the tan, also the effect of the tan / badge preservation factor, but in combination with the chinchilla factor , which results in white badges.

The coloring of the tan rabbit is recognized as a color in other breeds.

Tan coloration in other animal species: The black-and-tan coloration can also be found in other animal species, especially in domestic dogs (e.g. Doberman ), colored mice and guinea pigs .

literature

  • Standard van de Konijnenrassen, Cavia´s en kleine Knaagdieren , Nederlandse Konijnenfokkersbond, Venlo, 1990.
  • A. Franke: Das Lohkaninchen , in: The small animal breeder - Rabbit 10/1999, ISSN  0941-0848 .
  • G. Hochstrasser: Investigations on the history of the early rabbits in Germany I, in: Der Kleintierzüchter - Rabbit 10/1999, ISSN  0941-0848 .
  • G. Hochstrasser: Investigations on the history of the early rabbits in Germany II , in: The small animal breeders - rabbits 11/1999, ISSN  0941-0848 .
  • G. Hochstrasser: Investigations on the history of the early rabbits in Germany III , in: Der Kleintierzüchter - Rabbits 12/1999, ISSN  0941-0848 .
  • H. Majaura: Fehfarbenige Lohkaninchen , in: Der Kleintierzüchter - Rabbit 13/2005, ISSN  1613-6357 .
  • John C. Sandford: The domestic rabbit , 5th edition, Blackwell Science, Oxford 1996, ISBN 0-632-03894-2 .
  • Wolfgang Schlolaut: The big book of the rabbit , 2nd edition, DLG, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-7690-0554-6 .