Given that therians feel a sense of connection with a non-human animal species ¹ we surveyed participants, furry, non-furry, and therian, questions about the nature of their felt connection to their favorite animal species (e.g., fursona, animal one identifies with). These questions asked about three different dimensions: how much participants liked the species, how strong a spiritual connection they felt with the species, and the extent to which they identified with the species (each indicated on a 7-point scale, 1 = not at all to 7 = very much).

In the figure above, ² it’s clear that therians were found to have greater connections to their species than furries and non-furries, and that the nature of their connection was distributed pretty equally across the three dimensions. Most important, however, the distinction between furries and therians was stronger for the “spiritual” and “identity” dimensions than on the “like” dimensions, suggesting that the most defining difference between the two groups isn’t necessarily their liking of animals, but rather the extent to which they feel a deeper spiritual/identity connection to them.

1. See section 7.2 Therians: Animal Identification
2. International Furry Survey: Summer 2011