Thuringian Chamois Rabbit

The Thuringia Chamois was born in Germany, in the Thuringia region, at the end of the 19th century, from crossings between Russian rabbits, English silvers and Flemish giants. Its creator, named Gärtner, wanted to obtain large Russian and silver rabbits through selection, but faced with the poor results he was obtaining, he decided to cross his animals with Flemish giant rabbits. The size of his rabbits then increased rapidly, but he was unable to recover the coat characteristics specific to the Russian and silver breeds. The mixture of these three breeds even gave him animals with yellowish coats reminiscent of the chamois, and with darker extremities, like those of the Russian and the silver rabbit. By selecting these animals for their coat color and practicing inbreeding, he quickly managed to fix this characteristic and obtain a new breed: the Thuringia Chamois.

It is a medium-sized rabbit weighing between 2.5 and 4.25 kg. It has a sturdy and muscular body, well rounded, with a well-developed hindquarters. Its short, strong and wide head is connected to the body by an almost imperceptible neck. It bears two robust ears of 11 to 13.5 cm. A dewlap is tolerated in the female. The eyes are brown. Its coat is dense and supple with plenty of undercoat. It is uniformly yellow-ochre, with black tips giving it a chamois shade. The extremities are darker.