I didn’t pick my fursonas’ species (genus, really) so much as it picked me. At some point during my teen years I suddenly began noticing fox stuff everywhere. Random unexpected appearances in TV shows, pictures in odd places, a nature documentary about foxes discovered while flipping channels. I realized I knew almost nothing about these creatures despite them being so common and culturally important, and that felt wrong to me.

So I resolved to fix that, and started reading up on everything fox-related I could find. The more I learned, the more I began to identify with them. The idea of these small creatures that lack the power and social benefits of their larger canine cousins and have to rely on their intelligence and evasiveness really resonated with me, the unpopular and oft-bullied nerd who didn’t seem to have a place among the “wolves” of high school society. Even the fact that foxes are most often depicted as feminine, which bothered me at the time, became meaningful after I discovered that I’m transfemme.

I picked raccoon because:

• skrunkly trash gremlin

• cool fur pattern

• neutral color palette that wouldn’t clash with the outfit I wanted to use, which is a reference to the origin of my username

• the cotton candy video

I chose a synth (draconic lizard bot basically) because a) lizards and dragons are neat, and b) robots are neat. And so I thought “why not both?” found synths, and said “yep that’s me.”

I chose bunny because :

• I love bunnies
• they’re cute
• look at those ears!
• also I’ve always loved bunnies my whole life since as a kid so it’s only right to choose an animal I’ve always loved!

I made a 2nd sona, she’s a dragon, because :

• I like Dragons
• also my dragon is cool having purple scales and white fur!
• Dragons are cool

I started as a wolf, because that’s what my username was (and still is) in many places and it was my favorite animal at the time. I then started to like fox features so became a fox/wolf hybrid. I then saw some nice art of mightyena (the Pokemon), and decided that I liked some features of that as well. I’ve spent the past month or so tweaking it and making a better mental idea in my head of what it looks like, so I think now it’s probably just a custom species rather than a three species hybrid.

I know there’s stereotypes about certain species (wolves being independent, foxes being very friendly and the like), but I never really paid attention to that while choosing. Although, now I’ve started personalizing it more, I’ve started to relate more to my species - we’re both disorganized messes. :P

But yeah, my advice is to just pick your favorite animal and see how it goes. You can always change or customize it later.

I’ve always considered dragons my favourite creatures ever. Honestly, I didn’t choose the species, I always knew from the start that dragon was what I wanted no matter what.

I’ve always liked cats and was in awe of pumas and cheetahs when visiting a zoo or watching documentaries. I chose to base my fursona on a cheetah since they are less populated and easier to make unique (in my opinion).

Ultimately, it’s pretty easy to just pick your favourite species for your first sona. You can always make other OCs whenever you want!

Back then when I played World of Warcraft I was a feral druid. Now I stopped playing a long time ago but the cat form stayed and now I’m a lion. I also like all felids so that matches too.

I picked a squirrel because there are an insane amount of them near where I live

I just like foxes, think most fursonas start with favorite species + favorite color, there is a lot more to it though.
Foxes always resonated with me cause of their agile nature and sly behavior and they look hecking cute and floofy :3
There is a large variety of fursonas too, like: foxes, wolves, dragons (fluffy or scaly), bunnies, sharks, dogs, cats, pokemon, sergals, protogens
and also more exotic species like: snow leopards, lynxes, servals, hyenas, otters, bats, bears, lions, owls
basically every animal, fictional or not, you can think of

I didn’t really initially design my sona to be my sona per se, I initially just meant him as just a side character when I didn’t have a sona yet, but the concept really clicked with me once I had come up with it. In any case, I just combined my love of dragons with my interest in exotic nuclear rocketry to get a nuclear-powered space dragon.

been considering making a proper fursona recently

Me too. If so its gonna be a felid. Because of their introverted but still attached nature. And relaxed attitude. And careful curiosity. Fierce independence despite being very dependent. Matches with my personality. Probably going to be based of the guy in my avatar. Who I think is a lion (and he is originally named Coloned Leopold so a pretty big hint that he is). He is taken from a Duck Avenger comic I was a big fan of. I might make him more cat-like if I do, to distance myself a bit from Disney’s copyright. Make it my own.

Probably never gonna get around to it, knowing myself.

my first one was a dragon cuz i used to rly like seawings from wings of fire. then i switched to a robot bc robots are cool. i have p simple motivations tbh

Tails was my favorite character from Sonic. I think he was probably the biggest influence for me.

I’ve got three current fursonas with different stories as to how I picked their species.

Tofu (Zenko Kitsune): I actually had a lot of trouble narrowing this one down, and the final decision literally came down to being on a discord server about foxes and what I could do with DazStudio. The character that became Tofu could have been a Kobold, a Land Form Shaymin, a Sphinx (as in the Greek/Egyptian mythical creature, not a Bingus) or even a “scrap yard special” protogen with cybernetics made from recycled and/or repurposed parts, but eventually I decided on a Zenko Kitsune with five tails, who’s tails represent her age in centuries.

Sloan (Serval): If you can’t tell, Sloan’s my main. Tofu is very much not like me at all but rather more of a way to self-explore, so I decided I wanted to make a fursona that could act as my mascot. I thought about what traits are typically associated with various fursona species and settled on “lesser” wildcat, and then went with a serval because I’m tall and so are servals.

Amara (Land Form Shaymin): I liked the Land Form Shaymin concept I had when trying to decide on Tofu’s species, so I decided to use it as a separate character/'sona.