Animal cracker Animal cracker An animal cracker is a particular type of small cracker/cookie, baked in the shape of an animal, usually an animal either at a zoo or circus, such as an African lion, tiger, bear or elephant. The most common variety is light-colored and slightly sweet, but darker chocolate-flavored and colorful frosted varieties are also sold. Although animal crackers are made with a layered dough like crackers, they tend to be sweet in flavor, but still technically a cracker and not a cookie. Other animal-shaped crackers and cookies are popular, such as Teddy Grahams, Goldfish, Hello Panda and Koala's March.
Sooty (gene) is associated with the sooty trait. The most extensive expression of sooty produces a dark, often-dappled cast oriented down from the topline. Many horses with the sooty trait have a darker mask on the bony parts of the face. It was once thought that the sooty trait was responsible for turning chestnut into liver chestnut, however it is not known to evenly darken the coat. The sooty trait is responsible for many dark bays and has a particularly pronounced effect on buckskins and palominos. Although this trait has been called the "sooty gene", similar coat-darkening conditions studied in mice suggest