Vicki Anderson meets a group of people who like to dress up as animals and, er, frolic.

Birds do it, bees do it, but no one does it like furries do it.

The underground subculture phenomenon of furries - those who like to dress up in furry animal costumes and role play - has gone global, entering at least the fringes of mainstream consciousness with an appearance on an episode of the American TV series Entourage and, more recently, a popular episode of CSI.

Conventions are held around the world so furries can meet and mingle. Anecdotally, I am told Christchurch boasts a high number of furries.

Somewhat bemused, I find myself at a typical Christchurch suburban home on a Tuesday night interviewing a husband and wife who just happen to be clad in a wolf and a rabbit costume, respectively.

They have dreams to hold a South Island fur-vention later this year. There's an annual fur-vention held each November, but they want to surpass it in "size and furriness".

Mr Wolf, as he insists on being called, puts a paw across my knee and says he is happy to label himself a "furvert".

I remove his paw firmly while mentally adding it to the list of reasons I need a pay rise.

His wife, who is known to family and friends affectionately as "Bunny", dislikes the kinky assumptions about their animal wear.

She's equally as horrified by people who assume that furries harbour an obsession with bestiality.

"People doing sick things to animals is completely different to what we do.

"Human sexuality takes many forms. Most people who are furries have a legitimate anthropomorphic fetish," Bunny says. "The whole thing for me about being a furry is the dichotomy of intimacy and disconnect."

She confides that it is somewhat accepted by those in the furry community that those who choose the wolf totem are "lusty individuals".

"It's the wolf schtick, they're slightly dangerous and very sexual," she says. "It's why we work so well together as a couple. He likes to chase and I like to be chased.

"Bears and dragons are different again."

According to website WikiFur, different types of furries are defined as:

1. Fursuiters - those who like to dress up.

2. Otherkin - those who believe that they aren't human in spirit.

3. Furries - those who like to role play, draw, or write stories about furries.

4. Furverts or furry Fetishists - this can be divided into other subcultures, grouped by specific fetishes.

5. Trans-species - those who physically alter their body to resemble that of their respective animal.

Back in the home of Mr Wolf, there's an uncomfortable two minutes when he plays me a YouTube clip of Bunny and Bear furverts, fully costumed, sitting on each other's faces.

I dunk my gingernut into my tea and try not to giggle when I realise the "pool boy" in this video is a frog character named Brigitte Bourdeau.

Mr Wolf reckons there's something "intimate, natural and hysterically funny" about dressing up that non- furries just don't get.

Mr Wolf considers himself a furry, a furvert and a trans-species. He has had his ears made pointy at the tops and seems rather proud of this cosmetic procedure.

"What people don't understand is that I don't just pretend to be a wolf, I live every day of my life as a wolf. Spiritually, I am a wolf."

Creating your fursona isn't cheap, Bunny tells me. Some furries spend over $2000 to make their one-of-a-kind costumes, which range from regular animals to mythical fantasy beasts.

There's a knock at the door and we are joined for the interview by a donkey, a chicken and a fox. Bewildered as to the niceties required in this situation, I attempt to shake paws. Awkward.

Nobody wants to use real names and all are in costumes.

Online, there are many chatroom threads devoted to the subject of "fursecution" - many furries have lost their jobs after talking to the media.

"The mainstream just don't get us," says Fox. "Furries can't even decide on what we are. Some furries are just geeks who like to dress up, others are into kinky stuff. Like humans, every furry is different."

Donkey is a member of the Furry Writers' Guild (FWG) which aims to promote quality writing within "furry fandom". Donkey describes himself as "essentially a shy person"; the suit enables him to "lose a few inhibitions".

All creatures great and small in front of me have just finished work and gone home to change, as one describes it, "into themselves". One works in a bank, another is a lecturer, another a medical receptionist.

The chicken insists on showing me the "peek-a-boo" ring of fur he'd sewn on to his costume himself.

He'd done a good job of the sewing, but I'd really rather he hadn't pointed it out.

Over coffee, the group loosen up and the real stories come out.

The donkey admits to being caught "in flagrante delicto" with a dragon and being questioned by police before being allowed to drive home, in full costume, after a fur party in 2006.

"It was a party where the drinking got out of hand," Donkey explains.

"And it gets really hot in these costumes. I admit that it must have been odd for police to burst in and see a room full of essentially cartoon characters. But to us, it's no different to people who have foot fetishes, or who like their girls with lots of junk in the trunk. We need ways to meet like-minded people just like everyone else does."

FurcoNZ is an annual gathering of the New Zealand furry community. Run since 2007 during November, it has a distinctively Kiwi outdoors theme.

Since 2009, the event organisers deliberately scheduled FurcoNZ on "back-to-back" weekends with MidFur, held in Melbourne, to enable attendees to attend both Australasian furry get- togethers. MiDFur is Australia's biggest annual convention of furries and typically features seminars such as: "Over 30 and Furry" and "What Is Furry?" which aims to validate the fears of tail wearers. Workshops teach everything from the basics of cartooning to how to make your own ears and tails.

The FurcoNZ website describes the Kiwi event as starting as a "small indoor furmeet" at a private residence that has grown to become a weekend-long furry camping event. This year, organisers expect the number of attendees to double that of previous years.

A typical FurcoNZ furry weekend includes structured events such as archery, abseiling, kayaking and hiking, as well as indoor events such as board- games and dances. In the last two years, Chicken tells me a SingStar battle has been waged.

As we are saying our farewells in the driveway - and I have finally escaped the leery octopus-like paws of Mr Wolf - Chicken confesses, "It's hard enough to find love, let alone trying to find love when you're a furry. I'm just a little chicken in a big, big world."

I felt rather sorry for this lonely chicken as he got into his car and drove off.

Bunny has the last word. Rather timidly, she sidles up as I'm getting in a taxi. The taxi driver's face is priceless.

"There are a lot of us, you know. We may seem weird, but essentially we're just nature lovers. We just love nature a bit more than some other people do."