History of the Ebony
The Ebony mutation, it is thought is a combination of differing strains of genes which are aimed at producing the 'every-hair-shiny-black' chinchilla sometimes known as Homo Ebony, but better referred to as 'Extra-Dark' Ebony.
In the drive for a 'every-hair-shiny-black' chinchilla, differing Mutations which were thought would improve the wrap effect of the belly fur and the intensity of colour were used to selectively breed for the desired target of 'every-hair-shiny-black'.
Since this mix of genes, some Dominant and some Recessive, we are now in a situation where it is safest to say that Ebonies are 'Cumulative Dominant' Mutations. This means that in order to attain the 'every-hair-shiny-black' chinchilla called Ebony, we need a combination of separate genes to help us get there.
In the US, there are at least 7 recorded mutations (three dominant, four recessive) that influence the bar/belly/veiling of what are refered to in the US as the 'charcoal group'. These animals were bred on a variety of ranches throughout the US in the 1960's, and examples are as follows -
Brouke Charcoal; Bred by Betty Brouke of California in 1960. The Charcoal Mutation is a 'simple recessive' mutation, and therefore follows the same genetic rules as Sapphire and Violet. Charcoals arrived at various herds throughout America during the 1960's and 1970's, and generally were named after the owner of the ranch. There are several different strains of the Charcoal gene, although some are likely the same as others, but the distinct Recessive Charcoal mutation in the UK is the Brouke Charcoal. The Homozygous Recessive Charcoal (two charcoal genes) is a grey-charcoal colouration all over it's body and belly-fur. Where only one Charcoal gene is present in an animal, making it heterozygous Recessive Charcoal, NO discolouration or Charcoal colouration is seen on the animal. A Standard carrying Charcoal looks like a Standard, and has a White belly strip.
Tasco Charcoals (now known as the true Ebony Mutation); First bred by Otto Munn of Texas, in 1964. A dominant black or black brown of the Charcoal series. This is called a weakly dominant mutation because in the heterozygous state it appears like a dark standard with extra darkening over the hock and a blueness or discolouration in the belly. In the homozygous state, it is very dark over almost all of its body with a blue-grey or brown-grey belly, sometimes being quite dark. The Tasco Black does not have just the typical two dominant genes but has numerous dominant genes. These are accumulative and, therefore, by breeding more and more genes of the same type, they can be accumulated and darkening of the offspring increases.
French Blue ;Bred by Jack French of Kansas in 1970. Also of the black-brown or Charcoal series but different from the Tasco. In the heterozygous state it has standard fur with a definite bluish belly. In the homozygous state, it is quite dark but has a curly twist to the fur.
Busse ; Bred on the Angle Ranch in the US, C1960's. A dominant black or black brown of the Charcoal series. This animal has a very dark, blue-black appearance of the grotzen (strip of fur in the back) in the heterozygous state but has a blue-grey and blue-brown discoloration of the belly. This passes as a standard if it has only a minimum belly discoloration. The homozygous Busse animal will show considerably more darkness but also has the borowny/blishness colouration of the belly fur.
Lester Black, Midwest City Black or Black Onyx ; Bred by M.W.Lester of Oklahoma in 1970. Jet black with a black or black-grey belly and a lighter underfur. They have a waviness of the fur. In the carrier state, the animal looks almost entirely like a Standard. A very similar animal is the Treadwell Black (Bred in Fort Worth, Texas, 1962-63), and the French Blue.
Genetics of the Ebony
Accumulation of genes; Considering the Tasco mutation as described above, by breeding more and more veiling and colour intensity genes of the same type together, they can be accumulated and darkening of the offspring increases. Breeding an Extra-Dark Tasco or Ebony to a Standard can prove this, as almost all of the resulting offspring will be marked. If you take the marked offspring which have quite a lot of darkness, rather than those with less or no marking, and these are bred in turn to another group of Standard females. Their offspring in turn will contain the marking of Tasco, indicating that, as the number of weakly dominant genes is diluted, it must be diluted at least 3 or 4 breedings before most evidence of the gene is gone.
Naming your Ebony hybrids It seems that Ebonies are referred to as 'Hetero' and 'Homo' depending on their colour. This is not only confusing, but geneticaly a phenotypic guess as to the animal's genotype. Mutations generally fall into the following categories;
(1) Dominant Mutations (Beige, Black Velvet, Wilson White)
(2) Simple Recessive Mutations (Violet, Sapphire, Charcoal)
The Ebony is different, and is classed as a cumulative dominant mutation. My understanding is that Ebony is primarily the Tasco, with additionally a collection of different genes which, in certain combinations generate the true Ebony, the 'Every-Hair-Shiny-Black' chinchilla!
If a breeder says they have a Heterozygous Ebony, they cannot be sure which of these genes their Ebony is Heterozygous for, so principally, they are guessing geneotype, based on phenotype. What breeders mean is that the animal is not an 'Every-Hair-Shiny-Black', but still resembles an Ebony.
Consider the following description of the Ebony Chinchilla.
Beige + Ebony derivatives (Tans) will be named similarly, although the difference between an Extra-Dark Tan and a Dark Tan may be difficult to perceive...
These classifications make sense from a breeding point of view, to help track veiling and intensity through your Ebony lines. From a show perspective, it is the 'every-hair-shiny-black' Ebony we should be looking for. All the above colour phases would be placed at NCS Shows in the 'Self-Black' or, in the case of the Beige combinations, possibly 'Self-Brown' class.
From this classification, it is clear that any baby bred from an Ebony type chinchilla should also be called an Ebony, in order to prevent the bluish or brownish discolouration of belly fur from contaminating breeder's herds.
Breeding Ebonies
Ebony is a cumulative Dominant Mutation. It must be Dominant, otherwise all babies bred from an Extra-Dark Ebony to a Standard would look like Standards (with white belly fur), and of course they don't. Ebony is also Cumulative, since we see differing 'shades' or colour-phases of them, and by mating two Dark Ebonies together, you can get Extra-Dark Ebonies which we're after from a show point of view.
My understanding of the cumulative nature of the Ebony is that it takes a number of factors to breed the 'Every-hair-shiny-Black' chinchilla we're after. Some say you need four Ebony genes to get an Extra-Dark Ebony. Some say more, some less - the truth is NOBODY KNOWS for sure since there has been no genetic investigations, at least that I know of.
From a practical standpoint, if you wish to breed Extra-Dark Ebonies (consider for instance that they have 4 Ebony Genes), then the progeny from an Extra-Dark to a Standard could vary between having 4, 3, 2, 1 or 0 Ebony genes from the Ebony parent, and of course none from the Standard parent.
If you kept two of the babies which looked to have 3 genes (a Dark Ebony, paling over the hips OR the flanks, but jet black everywhere {see above) and pair them together, then a larger proportion of babies are likely to have 4 genes (to be Extra-Darks) than if you had kept two Medium-Dark Ebonies (two genes each, paling over hips AND flanks) and paired them together...
For instance, assuming that...
Ebony Punnet Square |
Extra Dark 4 |
Dark 3 |
Medium Dark 2 |
Medium 1 |
Light 0 |
Extra Dark 4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
Dark 3 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
Medium Dark 2 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
Medium 1 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
Light 0 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
(Light Ebonies may have one Ebony gene that gives very poor veiling coverage and intensity, so on it's own, passes as a Standard)
Extra-Dark Ebony x Extra-Dark Ebony
Extra-Dark Ebony x Dark Ebony
Extra-Dark Ebony x Medium-Dark Ebony
Extra-Dark Ebony x Medium Ebony
Extra-Dark Ebony x Light Ebony OR Standard
Dark Ebony x Dark Ebony
Dark Ebony x Medium-Dark Ebony
Dark Ebony x Medium Ebony
Dark Ebony x Light Ebony OR Standard
Medium-Dark Ebony x Medium-Dark Ebony
Medium-Dark Ebony x Medium Ebony
Medium-Dark Ebony x Light Ebony OR Standard
Medium Ebony x Medium Ebony
Medium Ebony x Light Ebony OR Standard
If you wish this information to apply to Tans, simply change one of the colour-phases of the Ebony parent Tan, and divide all the percentage prospects in two; For instance, if you are expecting 60% Extra-Dark Ebonies from two Extra-Dark Ebony parents, in the case of Tans…
Extra-Dark Tan x Extra-Dark Ebony
This does get a little complicated, but this is a symptom of this complex mutation. Couple this with the possibility of more than four genes at work, and also with the Probability that some Ebonies with two genes may look more dark and better covered than some Ebonies with more, and you have a huge melting pot!
The practical applications of this are simple. In order to get quality into your animals, you must firstly use a wasteful mating, such as Extra-Dark Ebony to Standard. Select the Extra-Darks and Dark Ebonies from this mating (2 in 5 babies might be this way) and cross them together... Discard the 3 in 5 babies which are not dark enough.
This is an example of how wasteful a breeding program for this mutation is (Recessives such as Sapphire, Violet and Charcoal are also wasteful, but not quite as much!)
You should also, of course be selecting for all other attributes which make for a beautiful chinchilla, namely large size, blocky conformation, fur type (silky-strong-stand-up-fur), even fur length, extra-heavy fur density, fur clarity, blueness, even veiling coverage, etc, etc...
Exhibiting Ebonies
When exhibiting Ebonies at NCS (UK) shows, judges are expecting to see Extra-Dark Ebonies which are intensely blue-black over their entire body, including their belly fur. Ebonies which are not of the required intensity of colour or coverage will be held back from gaining a first ribbon.
It is important to breed the Medium and Dark Ebonies, since these are the breeding tools for the improvement of the Ebony Mutation (bred from Extra-Darks to Top Standards), and these will gain appraisal and awards if sufficiently good at NCS shows, just not the top ribbons.
Ebonies are judged in NCS shows in the 'Self-Black' class, which is for all chinchillas which should be black throughout, including their belly fur. In the UK this includes the Char-Black, a combination of recessive Brouke Charcoal and Black Velvet, which cannot be readily discerned from the Ebony.
Combinations of Mutations with Ebony
There are several combination mutations which are seen on UK show tables, and some of these are listed below; For pictures and information on each one, click on the link if provided or go to the 'Mutation Combinations' section of this site.
Combination |
Known as in UK |
Known as in US |
Description of the Combination |
Seen on UK Show tables? |
Beige + Ebony |
">Tan |
Tan or Pastel |
The Tan chinchilla is a shiny-brown colouration all over the animal, including it's belly fur. Colour phase or intensity is dependant on number of Ebony genes present, but the evenness of veiling is paramount over intensity of colour. Exhibited in the 'Self-Brown' class with Pastels and Dark Pastels, which cannot be phenotypically distinguished from each other. |
Infrequently |
Wilson White + Ebony |
White-Ebony |
White-Ebony? |
Would resemble a Wilson White, except the guard hair and fur would be black, not Standard grey, and the veiling may also include the belly fur. A few examples started to be bred but generally poor fur quality. Unless the veiling spreads into the belly fur, they would be judged in the Wilson White or Black-White classes. |
Not seen |
Black Velvet + Ebony |
Black-Ebony? |
TOV Ebony |
This combination puts Black Velvet with the Black Ebony. When the Ebony is in the Extra-dark colour phase, the presence of Black Velvet is not easy to see. These chinchillas would be exhibited in the 'Self-Black' class with the Char-Blacks, since they cannot be easily distinguished phenotypically. |
Rare |
Ebony + Violet |
Solid Violet |
Solid Violet, or Violet Wrap |
A Solid Violet would be a chinchilla which resembled a Violet, but was this colouration all over it's body; an influence from the Ebony genes. These mutations have not appeared on UK show tables but it is expect that they will have poor fur qualities, due to the double combination of recessive genes, and the weak nature of the Ebony and Violet mutations. |
Not seen |
Ebony + Sapphire |
Solid Sapphire |
Solid Sapphire, or Sapphire wrap |
A Solid Sapphire would be a chinchilla which resembled a Sapphire or Royal Blue, but was this colouration all over it's body; an influence from the Ebony genes. These mutations have not appeared on UK show tables but it is expected that they will have poor fur qualities, due to the double combination of recessive genes, and the weak nature of the Ebony and Sapphire mutations. |
Rare |
Ebony + Charcoal |
Char-Ebony? |
Ebony |
Charcoal gives a matt-grey colouration all over a chinchillas body and belly fur. Ebony gives a shiny-black colouration all over a chinchiillas fur, including the belly fur. I can see no benefit to combining these Mutations. |
Not Seen |