Davidson Chinchillas - Specialising in Charcoal Chinchillas

Shimma - charcoal female

A search through various resources reveals a paucity of information concerning the emergence of the charcoal chinchilla as a mutation in its own right. I have compiled the following information from several sources and believe it to be as accurate as possible.

The pure recessive charcoal appeared between 1956-58 in several ranches (mainly) in California. The ranchers involved in the early development of the charcoal mutation were Betty Broucke, Wes Olson, R. Somavia, W. Pohl, and T. Ready. A curly brown charcoal appeared on the Sakrison ranch around 1963-64 but the male was found to be a slow breeder (a criticism of charcoal chinchillas in general that I have heard mentioned several times).

The early charcoal chinchilla pelts had good fur quality but were not favoured by the fur market due to their wrap around colour. The "zebra" effect of the standards and velvets was the most sought after pelt - the contrast between the pure white belly fur and the dark body fur.

The charcoal herds all varied slightly in phenotype (appearance), with some having outstanding density whilst others had exceptional fur texture. Two main variants were produced initially: namely the dark brown-grey and the lighter grey. A few garments were made from the pelts but they had limited acceptance and the variation in colour made matching the pelts somewhat problematic.

Due to the poor acceptance of the pelts, slow breeding, lack of genetics knowledge, and the large numbers of chinchillas needed for outcrossing, recessive charcoal chinchillas fell out of favour and ranchers stopped breeding the colour or mixed the recessive charcoal with the dominant (and more popular) "shiny black" ebony.

In the US the terms "charcoal" and "ebony" are used interchangeably. In the UK (and a few parts of Europe) where the true recessive charcoal is still in existance as a colour in its own right, the two terms are kept separate to denote the different genetic makeup of the animals concerned.

In the UK it is believed that the recessive charcoal in existence is the Broucke charcoal.