Sable

Sable

　　It has a slender body, short and sturdy limbs, and is slightly larger than a weasel, with males generally bigger than females. It has five toes with sharp, curved claws. Its ears are large, upright, and slightly triangular. The tail is bushy. The face and snout are relatively pointed, with a blunt tip, and there is a distinct vertical groove in the center of the nasal-labial area, along with over 20 highly elastic and well-developed whiskers. The eyes are large and bright, the ears are large and upright, slightly triangular, and the tail is thick with bushy fur, accounting for about 30–40% of the body length.

　　 【Body Length】: Around 40 cm

　　 【Tail Length】: Around 12 cm

　　 【Weight】: 0.5–1.0 kg

　　 【Fur Color】: Wild sables are generally brownish-black or brown (domesticated sables come in black, white, blue, yellow, and other colors); the head is light grayish-brown, the ear edges are dirty white, with yellow or yellowish-white throat patches; the chest has brownish fur, and the belly is lighter in color.

　　 It is now only found in the cold forest and snowfields of the Greater Khingan Mountains, Lesser Khingan Mountains, Laoye Mountains, Zhangguangcai Mountains, and Wandashan Mountains in Heilongjiang, the Changbai Mountains in Jilin, and the Huanren County in Liaoning, as well as the Altai Mountains in northern Xinjiang, among other places, where it has a discontinuous distribution.

　　 　 Subspecies: It is known that there are four subspecies of sable in China, namely the Altai subspecies (M. z. averin), the Greater Khingan Mountains subspecies (M. z. princeps), the Lesser Khingan Mountains subspecies (M. z. linkouensis), and the Changbai Mountains subspecies (M. z. hamgyenensis).