Color Phase Coons?

I have noticed that some of the boar coons that I catch around this time of year have a red/orange tint in their fur. Can anybody tell me what causes this? I don't ever recall catching sows during late season, so I don't even know if it is only boars that do it, or both. I have also never sold any with the coloration. Would that hurt the value of the pelt?

Most of the discoloration is due to genetics, and to a lesser degree fading from post prime break down.

There is an old wives tail that the "school bus" color was from other boars urinating on each other in the den. First of all, once breeding starts (mid Jan here) boars will not tolerate each other, let alone den together. Secondly, coon are as cleanly as cats, and aren't about to allow other coon to pee on them.

You mean it's NOT from Denning????


I didn't necessarily think it was from them urinating on each other...but I did think it was from Denning and the trees staining their fur.


Ours get the same reddish orange cast to them. I always believed it was from the insides of the trees staining them. Same color you'd get from the tannic acid from the trees.

The number of coon that den in trees is a small percentage compared to bluff dens, ground dens, barns, round bale stacks, silage bags, old vehicles, etc.

Most hollowed out sections of a den tree contain rotted wood, and depleted tannic acid. Tannic acids are also much more prevelant in hard woods such as oaks. Primary tree species that hollow out and make good den trees around here are cotton wood, and soft maple, both of which have low levels of tannic acid.

If tannic acid were a major factor there would be no grey squirrels, they would all be orange/yellow.

Spot on Dave.

Around 80% of the total coon production is either Off or Badly Off color.So don't feel bad.

I always presumed tannic acid came from the bark? A hollow cavity in a tree is dead and anything in the wood would have been neutralized I would think.

When I was young my grandfather called them rockcoons.
When I finally ask why he called them that, he said it was because the lived in any crevice they could crawl into and it changed the white to yeller.
And from my many miles of following tracks in mud and snow I believe he was right.

Did he ever explain why crawling into a tight crevice would turn the fur yellow?

I see school bus colored coon hit on the road throughout the entire year, outside of the major denning period, which has always pointed to a genetic reason for color phases. There are sections of the country where a vast majority of the coon have a yellow color, and no rock crevices to crawl into.

I tried not to ask to many questions, he was a tough man, but fair and honest.
Through my scouting walks, I believe that when they find a good safe place to sleep, they use them all year. Just my observation.
You can change the color a bit with peroxide and oxyclean, it bubbles like the dickens and it might change one coler shade.

Most coon in this region just curl up in a brushy fence row, or similar spot, in the summer if it isn't raining, and really don't use a consistant den, unless its a sow with cubs.

There are differing colors of coons in my area within a radius of 20 miles or so. Yellow or reddish colors I agree are probably base line genetic driven but hormonal changes during rut etc. can cause color changes and especially in adult or breeding age males. I don't find near the redness in even later caught YOY males as I do with older males. Males can be come stained due to urine but it is the smell that is a bigger indicator of some winter den activity. Also I feel that if coons feed a lot on corn to store fat that that yellow carotene color comes through during their den times. As they start to mobilize fat to give them calories they can take on some color changes as well.Also with fur being 99% protein and protein intake drops to almost nothing the fur can start to deteriorate in many ways, color being one of them.

Bryce

I also believe genetics has a roll in the different colors. I have not found any in brush piles, but then I'm not looking there either. My spring and summer scouting is intertwined with trout and bass fishing.
I do find a few sleeping up in the branches of hemlock trees in the summer
I will make a point of looking a little harder in the thicker areas this year when out and about.
Can't ever learn enough.

Boco where’s that page from and where can I get one?

Bryce mentioned the breeding age and that triggered something for me. I pulled down a couple of boars the other day and while 1 was red, the other was not. I would say there was a definite age difference as the red one went 3xl, while the smaller "normal" color one only went 1xl.

Page 740.You can find the odd one for sale on line once in a while.Check amazon.

Typically, my better 1-2 color coon are sows. Boars around here usually have an off-color on the back of the neck area, some a lot, some not too much in off-ness. I sent a 5x first half of Dec boar that had a red tint to auction. We'll see if anyone is interested at the end of this month. I don't seem to notice a color change from Nov through now. Very little coon movement here the last 10 days, even for the Romeos...