Usenet newsgroups such as furry and alt.lifestyle.furry, popular from the mid-1990s to 2005, have been replaced by topic-specific forums, mailing lists and Live Journal communities. The Usenet newsgroup alt.lifestyle.furry was created to accommodate discussion beyond furry art and literature, and to resolve disputes concerning what should or should not be associated with the fandom; its members quickly adopted the term furry lifestylers, and still consider the fandom and the lifestyle to be separate social entities.
During the 1980s, furry fans began to publish fanzines, developing a diverse social group that eventually began to schedule social gatherings.In a different online survey, 33% of furry respondents answered that they have a "significant sexual interest in furry", another 46% stated they have a "minor sexual interest in furry", and the remaining 21% stated they have a "non-sexual interest in furry".The survey specifically avoided adult-oriented websites to prevent bias.He also suggested that the animal could be a 'pre-historic specimen frozen in the permafrost.'After initially sharing Smith's idea of the creature being a pre-historic specimen, Professor Alex Rogers, Professor of Conservation Biology at Oxford University said he believed the creature was a giant beaked whale.He also suggested a possible reason for the large animal's death: 'Beaked whales are particularly prone to disturbance from military sonar but of course it is impossible to say what has been the cause of death in this specimen.' Found in Russia, a picture of the mysterious creature was posted on social media by Anastasia Steshina with the comment: "When we saw it, we did not even realize that it was a turtle.