Fur Replicas

Acorn Naturalists Kind Fur® faux fur replicas are designed to give children the look and feel of animal study skins or animal pelts—they work well with storytelling, discovery tables, or to supplement children's books about different animals. We need to emphasize, however, that these animal fur replicas are not real animal study skins or animal pelts (they lack eye holes, ears, noses, paws and tails found in animal pelts and animal study skins). Unlike fur from trapped animals, these fur replicas do not require chain of custody permits, special storage or preservation arrangements. Most importantly, the use of Kind Fur® does not require the trapping and killing of animals that are better left alive in the wild. It is important to note that in nature there is tremendous variation in animal fur color, in the same species from different locations or seasons. The fur replicas we offer are as close in appearance (and feel) for each species as one can find. Over thirty years ago, Acorn Naturalists pioneered the effort to encourage educators to embrace using skull replicas to help prevent random killing of wild animals for their skulls. Acorn Naturalists is now pioneering the concept of replacing animal pelts and animal study skins with animal replica fur, or Kind Fur®, perfect for use by educators and interpreters. Over thirty different animal fur replicas are now available, including opossum, beaver, muskrat, squirrel, rabbit, bat, bear, cougar, bobcat, raccoon, skunk, badger, weasel, coyote, red fox, gray fox, and wolf. In addition to many other educational uses, Acorn Naturalists fur replicas help illustrate the Next Generation Science Standard (NGSS), specifically Disciplinary Core Idea (DCI) LS1.