Check out the History of the Angora Rabbit

Cilla

Angora rabbits have been documented since Roman times.  The long hair gene is one that shows itself regularly in many types of animal as can be seen in cats, dogs, guinea pigs etc.  Usually this longhair mutation would not fair well in the wild , the coat would become saturated and matted leading to illness and death.  As a captive bred animal however the long haired animal is highly prized and developed into the extremes of coat that we see today ie: the Persian cat, Afghan Hound, Peruvian Guinea-Pig etc.

Cashmere Lop

The original long hair rabbit would probably have a coat like that of  the  Swiss Fox or Cashmere lop that we see today.   The coat is still predominantly guard hair, the long, silky, harder, waterproof hair that makes a normal rabbits top coat.   The wool is the undercoat , shorter on a normal rabbit to act as insulation.  The Angora is unusual in that the gene affects the undercoat growth, producing a rabbit that has more undercoat (wool) than top coat.  This rabbit would be useless in the wild , (have you ever seen a wet Angora?) but immediately was taken up as a fibre animal by the Romans who, we believe, collected and spun the wool, as far back as 100BC.  The earliest reports of the domestication of rabbits, ie: being captive bred for meat, fur and wool were of this period.

Why Angora?  This is slightly controversial but once again there is documentation from around 1500, Henry VIII’s reign that Long haired/wooled rabbits were highly regarded at that time in England. There was even a law in place banning the sale and export of such to foreign lands.  The animal was described as the English Silk Hare and its product was used in clothing manufacture, we can ascertain that this then was a wool producing animal.  England at that time was the World domination in western trade with ships trading all over the known World.  There is documented proof that the long haired rabbit was traded in France in 1723 by English Sailors.   Due to the law preventing the export of the English Silk Hare it is believed that animals were smuggled out of England and sold in far away ports secretly , probably long before this.  The long haired rabbit thus travelled throughout Europe reaching Turkey and their trade centre Ankara, formally known as Angora.  Ankara was the home of the Angora goat and so the long haired rabbit which had a coat not dissimilar to the Mohair producing goat took on the name Angora Rabbit.   It is ironic that it would finally arrive back in  England with its new more exotic name. 

In reality there were probably different forms of the long haired gene as there are today. 

The English Angora as we know it presents the growth gene in its full  glory with the massive undercoat and little guard hair (top coat).  Guard hairs are still present though, approx 1-5% of the total coat, known today as the tips, highly prized on show animals and extremely difficult not to lose during the grooming process !  The wool is light , fine, silky but with a warm wool handle. The coat should snowball the animal, producing a round effect achieved by the density of coat and the warmth and weight of the fibre.

English Angora

The French Angora has more guard hair that has been bred to be very long and silky, its coat is very fine and silky and naturally falls in a parting on the animal. They have no head furnishings or ear tassels. The coat is easier to maintain, being fairly mat free.

French Angora

German and Giant Angoras are basically English Angoras who have been selectively bred to produce more wool per animal. They are larger and their wool has a slightly heavy feel and is less prone to matting.

German Angora

The SatinAngora is a French/Satin mix with a satinised look to the wool giving it an incredible shine.

Above Satin Angora "Dukat" belonging to Ursula Glauser, see her website http://homepage.sunrise.ch/homepage/pglaus

The Dwarf Angora a new development from Holland of course the lovely little Dwarf Angora... will it catch on ???.

Dwarf Angora

So we see that the Angora was being bred all over Europe in its many forms as far back as 100BC.  Its modern history and development really started to gain pace around the 18^th. Century when clothing manufacturers took up the Fibre as it was cheap to produce but offered supreme luxury.  There is documentation and even drawings showing an animal not dissimilar to the rabbit we have today being used to supply wool .  This is a copper plate produced in 1754 showing the beginnings of the modern day Angora. 

Plate 1754

It wasn’t until the 20^th. century when the commercial Angora took flight with Germany leading the field. There are reports of around 40-45 thousand animals being kept for wool production at the turn of the century.  The Germans were fastidious with their records and over time produced an animal that once produced 150g of wool a year to one that now produces around 1-2kg of wool from 4 shearings a year, rightly termed the German Angora.  The war brought these big Angora Wool producers to a halt and post war many smaller enterprises sprouted.  China became interested in the Angora and there are reports of 30,000 animals being exported to China from Frankfurt.  Today they are the biggest producer of Angora fibre supplying 95% of the worlds raw Angora Fibre from an estimated 3 million animals. No one can compete with the Chinese production but there are producers in Chile, Argentina, India and Germany still have a fair few producers on a smaller scale.

Chinese Angora Production

The English Angora has always been a pet and exhibition animal highly prized for its fine silky wool, lovely nature and fairy tale appearance.  It has its hardened supporters here in the UK that maintain its quality and it is a regular best Fancy and Best in Show winner.  The first UK club was the Universal Angora Club founded in 1907, The Southern Angora Club formed as a second club in 1920, they amalgamated into the National Angora Club in 1963 it presently caters for the breed in the UK, details in the showing section.