Fursuiting: Not just for furries

[Vallium]

Recently had an interesting discussion in a skype group 

Fun fact, many wildlife researchers and rehabilitators do tend to wear animal costumes or otherwise imitate the visage of a certain animal species. This is typically to A) Work amongst the animal with them being comfortable and in a natural state or B) Allow the young animal to associate caring and interaction with their own species rather than with a human in order to be released into the wild

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141028-halloween-costumes-science-conservation-nation-animals/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1336070/Why-Chinese-scientists-dressing-Panda-suits-fool-bear-cubs.html

All interesting (also sometimes derpy as heck)

 

...naturally this idea was sparked by a certain someone (you know who you are) who considered what the psychological implications would be if a human baby was parented most its life by someone in a fursuit and never seeing outside the fursuit...

A more interesting topic, perhaps

Discuss

[Enigma]

I think fursuiting started with sporting events.

[Vallium]

15 minutes ago, Enigma said:

I think fursuiting started with sporting events.

 

Beyond that, too

[Enigma]

6 minutes ago, WolfNightV4X1 said:

 

Beyond that, too

Correction modern day fursuiting started with sporting events. 

What you have are dead animal pelts on heads and death masks.

[Vallium]

2 minutes ago, Enigma said:

Correction modern day fursuiting started with sporting events. 

What you have are dead animal pelts on heads and death masks.

..that imitate animal forms, same thing right?

[Enigma]

21 minutes ago, WolfNightV4X1 said:

..that imitate animal forms, same thing right?

Close enough ^^;

[Vallium]

2 hours ago, Enigma said:

Close enough ^^;

:V Im messing with you but you have a point with the mascots.

Its just interesting how many different reasons people have to don animal costumes, including useful ones and not just recreational

[Osrik]

2 hours ago, Enigma said:

Correction modern day fursuiting started with sporting events. 

What you have are dead animal pelts on heads and death masks.

You can get closer to fursuits if you look at pagan religious attire, these are modern day examples but many of them have been passed down for centuries:

A lot of the rituals involving the costumes also involve imitating the animals they are made to resemble, so you have that side of fursuiting too...

But yeah, sporting mascots are likely the chief modern motivation behind fursuiting, these just show how long "fursuits" and even acting like the animals they represent has been a thing with humanity.

[#00Buck]

I think someone just wants Bigfoot to give them a little loving. 

[JegoLego]

11 minutes ago, Osrik said:

this looks like a cross between Cousin Itt from Addams Family and that one-eyed vibrator from Yo Gabba Gabba

[Vallium]

2 hours ago, Osrik said:

You can get closer to fursuits if you look at pagan religious attire, these are modern day examples but many of them have been passed down for centuries:

Damn! Where the hell are the faces?

...and what are you even trying to imitate with that one?

 

[Osrik]

7 hours ago, WolfNightV4X1 said:

Damn! Where the hell are the faces?

...and what are you even trying to imitate with that one?

 

I expect they aren't trying to imitate specific animals with those ones (most likely gods, nature spirits, or mythical creatures) but I included that specific picture for both the quality of those costumes and their fitting furriness. There are a lot of others that are animal in character but not easily classifiable as anything real (though they might be stylized depictions, though i doubt this for the first two):

Sadly I can't really find much about the specific cultures/rituals these costumes belong to, as though the photographic series they are from (wilder-mann) includes images of a wide variety of costumes belonging to many different pagan groups, the photographer fails to provide any significant information with each image, and there seems to be little online about most of the groups beyond their general locations. I wish i could read more about these groups, as I find these often ancient pagan religions very interesting in how they display the variety and often colorfulness of human belief throughout our history and throughout the world.

[Rabbit Head]

Those pagan outfits look really cool. I have a few of them saved on to my phone after I found them on tumblr. 

My acrylics professor saw them when i was looking on my phone for inspiration and he also freaked out about how cool they looked. Although, he slightly doubted they were real because they looked to awesome to be real. 

[Nova]

12 hours ago, Osrik said:

You can get closer to fursuits if you look at pagan religious attire, these are modern day examples but many of them have been passed down for centuries:

Giant sentient hairy dicks

[Xaende]

On 8/5/2016 at 5:56 AM, Nova said:

Giant sentient hairy dicks

Looks like Chewbacca mated with a Bunchie.

 

 

[Vallium]

5 hours ago, Xaende said:

Looks like Chewbacca mated with a Bunchie.

 

 

oh dang...those faces...I need to block my mental activities before it goes places