So far we've been looking at species from a world building perspective. But what about for individuals?

Every furry author worth their salt takes into consideration species when it comes to reflecting the character's personality, or at least how that species will react to the reader.

What I would like to ask you though is, what does the character think of their species? What does being that species mean to the character? And how does the species influence the character's self-identity?

People like labels. It helps us organize things. And people use these labels to define themselves. Profession. Sports fan (insert game/team). Gamer. Goth. Gearhead. You also get personality characteristics like "Kind" or "Intelligent" or "A Go-Getter". These sort of things make up an individual, and the unique combination often offers a distinct difference from one person to the next. These are the things people toss out when you ask "So, how would you describe yourself?"

However, one thing that some people will do is take one of these labels and define themselves by it. They take it and bring that label into Every Aspect of their Life, creating a Lifestyle out of a facet of their personality. Religion is a good example, where someone who does this may have a cross on their cubical and try to lead everyone in prayer at the watercooler, they say things like "As a Christian, I..." You get this with some gay people, that make sure everyone they come into contact wtih knows they are gay. Sports Fans do this. Goths do it. My God furries do it. If you ask them "So, how do you describe yourself", this characteristic would likely be the first or second word out of their mouth.

In our world, people do the above with race/ethnicity. You see this with immigrants from one culture/nation to another, where they either assimilate, go half-and-half, or embrace their heritage. Or they embrace the subculture that runs in that ethnicity/race, and cling to the stereotypes, as well as letting that dictate their interactions with Other people.

So it stands to reason that in a world with anthros, you could have people who wrap their identity in their species.

Their species is very important to them. They could have issues of Pedigree, or lineage. They could adhere to the behaviors that Society assumes corresponds with that species - that is, not just what we, the reader assume, but that behaviors which are acknowledged/assumed in the world and they behave that way. Such as a feline being hyper-aloof and arrogant. Also, their species may very well have some cultural things in common.

That isn't to say that one species = one culture. I'm not Jay Naylor saying that species = race/nationality per se. After all, you get an African American from Harlem, a Jamaican and a Nigerian, drop them in a room, and they're likely not going to feel very similar. They have different cultures, despite having a racial similarity. Three foxes plucked from around the world would likely feel as unaligned. However, within a country or region, you'd likely have the overall culture (the American identity/over arching culture if you will), and then a potential subculture of the same species.

And within that subculture the individual who defines themselves by their species might firmly adhere to the behaviors set out.