Introduction to Raccoon Dog Breeds and Detailed Explanation of Selection Standards

The raccoon dog belongs to the order Carnivora, family Canidae, and is a medium-sized fur-bearing animal. According to "Fauna Sinica" (1987), the raccoon dog in China can be divided into 3 subspecies, namely the nominate subspecies, the Northeast subspecies, and the Southwest subspecies:

① Nominate subspecies: found in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and other provinces and regions, body length 50-53cm, short coat, underfur is brownish-yellow, guard hairs have fewer black tips, and the black longitudinal stripe on the back is not obvious.

② Northeast subspecies: found in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning and other provinces, body length 56-90cm, long hair and thick underfur, obvious black dorsal stripe, underfur is blue-gray or light yellow.

③ Southwest subspecies: found in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and other provinces, body size significantly smaller than the Northeast subspecies, close to the nominate subspecies. Underfur is sparse, dark gray, guard hairs mostly have black-gray tips and are very short.

According to another report by Yoshio Kinugawa (1941), the raccoon dog in China has 7 subspecies:

① Ussuri raccoon dog - found in the Greater Khingan Mountains, Changbai Mountains, Sanjiang Plain, North and South Plains and other places; ② Korean raccoon dog - found in the southern areas of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning.

③ Amur raccoon dog - found in the Sino-Russian border zone.

④ Jiangxi raccoon dog - found in Jiangxi and its surrounding provinces.

⑤ Minyue raccoon dog - found in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi and other provinces.

⑥ Hubei raccoon dog - found in Hubei, Sichuan and other provinces.

⑦ Yunnan raccoon dog - found in Yunnan and its surrounding provinces.

At present, the subspecies with higher economic value that is artificially bred in China is the Northeast subspecies, which is mainly the Ussuri raccoon dog, as well as the Korean raccoon dog and the Amur raccoon dog.

2. Body shape and appearance of the Ussuri raccoon dog

The body shape resembles a fox, but it is fatter and more stocky, with a short tail and short limbs. The coat is long and fluffy, with thick underfur. It is digitigrade, walking on its toes. Both forelimbs and hindlimbs have well-developed foot pads. The claws are short and thick and cannot retract. The coat is usually blue-gray or blue-yellow, the muzzle is short and pointed, the cheeks have long light-colored hairs growing sideways, and there are dark brown hairs from around the eyes to the lower jaw, forming an obvious "V" shape, and extending through the throat and front chest to the forelimbs. The guard hairs along the center of the back mostly have black tips, forming a black longitudinal stripe with unclear boundaries to varying degrees, extending backward to the back of the tail, and the closer to the end of the tail, the deeper the stripe. The back has a darker coat color, appearing blue-gray; the sides near the abdomen are gray-yellow or brown-yellow; the abdomen has the lightest coat color, appearing gray-white or yellow-white; the limbs have a darker coat color, appearing black or dark brown.

Adult male raccoon dogs weigh 5.5-8.0kg, with a body length of 58-67cm and a body height of 28-38cm; adult female raccoon dogs weigh 5.3-7.5kg, with a body length of 57-65cm and a body height of 25-35cm.

The Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, using the mutant white gene from wild coat color (common color type), after 16 years of research, finally successfully bred our existing new color type white raccoon dog, the Jilin white raccoon dog. The new color type white raccoon dog has two phenotypes: one is that except for the eye rims, ear edges, nose tip, claws, and tail tip retaining the wild-type coat color, the guard hairs and down hairs on other parts of the body are pure white; the other is that the guard hairs and down hairs on all parts of the body are pure white. The two white raccoon dogs are the same as wild-type raccoon dogs in body shape, appearance, habits, and reproductive capacity, with a gentle temperament, easy to become obese, and relatively large body weight. The coat colors of both white raccoon dogs are attractive, and the fur produced is favored by domestic and foreign merchants, with a selling price higher than wild-type coat color skins.

3. Standards for each Ussuri raccoon dog

① Fur quality: guard hairs are black, dense, evenly distributed, neat, with no white guard hairs, hair length 8-9cm; down hairs are blue-gray, dense, neat and evenly distributed, length 5-6cm. The difference between dorsal and abdominal hair is small, and the coat is glossy.

② Body size: at weaning, body weight >1.4kg, body length >40cm; at 5 months of age, body weight >5.0kg, body length >60cm; adult raccoon dogs (11-12 months) body weight >6.0kg, body length >65cm. Large body size, loose skin, large and spirited eyes, strong limbs, healthy body, and no disease are required.

③ Reproductive capacity: adult male raccoon dogs should have a mating capacity of more than 10 times, resulting in a high mating rate for the mated female raccoon dogs, with more than 10 offspring per litter; adult female raccoon dogs are required to come into estrus in early March, with more than 8 surviving offspring per litter; young raccoon dogs of the year should be selected from litters with more than 5 offspring, with good growth and development, normal external genitalia, and more than 4 pairs of effective teats. The male-to-female ratio is 1:2-3.