The Furries of Fresno State (FFS), are a group of students who come together and enjoy their shared niche, which would be called “The Furry Community” or “Furry Fandom.”

Furries are a group of people often seen dressed in fluffy animal costumes that have built their own online community. These fluffy animal costumes normally represent a fursona, an animal persona of the creator.

Which may make some wonder, where are those furry friends? While a little quieter, they can still be found on campus while we all gallop to the finish line of education.

Club meetings are often filled with excitement and a bustling energy, where those who are a part of the club all eagerly point new faces to the sign-in sheet. Members can be found on laptops playing games, drawing on the whiteboard or simply chatting with each other.

Reegan Kemp, a history major and known by online username Starberri, is a member who described the club as “fun, accepting and a bit chaotic,” Kemp said while she held the mask to her colorful and pastel bunny fursona.

Micah Warden, an engineering major, also known as Jyoschi, is the club president and described furries as “[fans] of anthropomorphic animals or people-like animals,” such as ones seen in Disney movies, Warden said.

Furries aren’t super well known, but the club provides a way for other furries that are on campus to come together, hang out and build friendships.

They have a wide variety of events, with an event history found on their website. Activities include group badge making, watch parties, drawing and unique events such as “creating celebrity fursonas.”

Aliyah Hopkins, an animal science major, also known as Cloud, is the vice president and mentioned how the last outing was to see “Zootopia 2.”

“It was one of our biggest outings we had for that semester,” Hopkins said. “It was a really good turnout, and we had a really good fursuit photo.”

Each member who has a fursona will often have unique reasons as to why they have chosen the animal.

J.L. Bravo, a computer science major, wears a bird fursuit head and black gloves, and claims their fursona is a California scrub jay.

“As I grew up, I saw a lot of California scrub jays,” Bravo said. “But there aren’t really a lot of [fur]sonas that have the scrub jay, and I thought, why don’t I make a [fur]sona off of that?”

Kemp described that a few popular species for the fandom include wolves, dogs and cats. However, she mentioned Kae Devaney, an environmental science major, who is also known as Baja, a blue sea dragon, as a unique fursona in the club.

Devaney talked about how difficult it is to find a sense of community, but he has found that by making friends, commissioning fursuit pieces and attending meetings through the club.

“We like to play a lot of games, we like to draw on the board and we have done a couple of movie watch parties, which have been pretty fun,” Devaney said.

With a connection to dragons, the sea and loving the Wings of Fire series, he felt best to combine all those elements for a fursona.

“I love the ocean,” Devaney said. “I grew up near the ocean, and I grew up swimming in the ocean.”

While some might point to the shady and scandalous online art, it should be mentioned that the Furries of Fresno State Club is a safe-for-work club, meaning no illicit drawings or media are present.

In a way, Fresno State’s mascot is essentially a bulldog fursona, and there is a guy in a fursuit helping the school cheer on the teams and build school spirit. He isn’t technically a furry, but in a crowd, it would be hard to find a difference.

Students who are furries, or have a love for movies with animals, should look into the Furries of Fresno State to discover the innerworkings.

Correction: This story was adjusted on Feb. 5 at 11:15 a.m. to correct the spelling of Micah Warden’s name.