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Written by Pauline Cameron/alonesolo & Katie Kemsley/in-like-flynn!
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Australian: This is a wild animal that has spread throughout Australia and New Zealand. They tend to have fur damage for much of the year and up to 80% of production would be grade III or IV fur. Shearing, shorter furred types like Red Brown and Red Neck produces a good-sized shorn skin. Basic colors are Dark brown (females with longer fur), Red brown (males with shorter fur), Pale Grey (females with longer fur) Rusty (female Red Neck with longer fur ginger red around the neck and often sold with Red Necks) Red Neck (males with shorter fur with ginger/ red color neck) Dark (combo of Dark Brown and Red Brown), Lights (combo of Pale Gray and Red Neck/ Rusty).
 70s Opossum Collar courtesy VintageClothes-line
Ringtail: Found in Eastern Coastal Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania. Named for the curve at the end of its tail. They are the size of a house cat and generally gray brown beige on the belly with a white patch behind the ears.
The Virginia Ringtail: Smaller than a Raccoon, the Ringtail weighs about 2 pounds. It is slender with a tapered muzzle and is covered with long, sleek, white hair and a soft, woolly undercoat. These are found in Texas mostly in the eastern part of the state. They are also found in the Appalachian Region, Eastern US, from the Great Lakes region, south to Costa Rica. They have also been introduced into California and parts of Arizona, western Colorado and Idaho. Pelts are worth less than $2.00 each.
Water Opossum: Found from southern Mexico and Belize to northeastern Argentina. The fur is relatively short, fine, and dense. The back is marbled gray and black, the rounded black areas coming together along the midline. The muzzle, a band through the eye to below the ear and the crown are blackish; a prominent grayish white, crescent-like band passes from the front of one ear to the other, just above the eyes. The chin, chest, and belly are white. The long, rat-like tail is well furred only at its base and is black near the body and yellowish or whitish towards the end. The facial bristles are stout, long and placed in tufts.
Fur Your Information!
The Virginia Opossum evolved from the common (South American) Opossum some 75,000 years ago and then came north.
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