Fur Facts For Kids

Fur is the soft, thick coat of hair that covers most mammals. It grows in layers so the animal can stay warm, dry, and safe in many kinds of weather.

The top layer has longer, coarser hairs that shed water and give color and shine. Underneath is a thick, fluffy layer that traps warm air next to the skin. Between these two is a middle kind of hair that helps both layers do their jobs.

Down hair is the fluffy underfur closest to the skin. These hairs are short, wavy or curly, and very many of them grow close together so they trap a pocket of dry air next to the animal’s skin.

Because that trapped air stays warm, down hair is the animal’s main blanket. When the weather gets cold, the underfur keeps body heat in. Animals in cold places, like rabbits and foxes, often have very thick down hair.

Awn hair grows in between the down hair and the guard hair. It starts out a bit like the longer guard hairs but then becomes thinner and wavier. The lower part of each awn hair helps hold warm air like down hair, while the outer part can help shed light rain and splash.

When awn hairs are common, they make up much of the animal’s visible coat. This middle layer helps the whole fur work together—keeping the animal warm and a bit drier.

Guard hair is the long, coarse top layer you see first on an animal. These hairs stick out through the underfur and give the coat its color and shine, which can help the animal hide or show off to others.

Guard hairs repel water and block too much sunlight, so the underfur stays dry and safe. Some animals can raise their guard hairs when they are frightened or excited. In wet or sunny places, strong guard hairs are very important for protection.

Natural selection helps explain why some mammals have little or no fur. For animals that spend a lot of time in water, like whales, dolphins, seals, and hippos, having very little hair makes it easier to swim. Less hair means less water drag, so they move through water faster and use less energy.

Other animals lost most of their hair for different reasons. The naked mole-rat lives underground, where thick fur would get in the way, and very large animals such as elephants and rhinoceroses stay mostly hairless because their big bodies can get rid of heat differently. Some baby marsupials are born hairless and grow fur later.

Artificial selection is what happens when people choose which animals will be parents so certain traits appear more often. Long ago, people may also have changed human hair by choosing groups and passing along gene changes; scientists think some of these changes happened hundreds of thousands of years ago.

People have also bred animals on purpose to be hairless. Breeders selected cats, dogs, guinea pigs, and lab animals that naturally had less fur and mated them so hairless breeds appeared. Examples you might hear about are Sphynx cats, hairless dogs, hairless guinea pigs, the

Fur has been a warm and useful material for people for thousands of years. Early humans and many groups later used animal pelts to keep warm in cold places. Sometimes pelts were left soft, and sometimes they were made with leather on the underside to make them stronger. Fur can be dyed or trimmed to change how it looks.

Fur also helped make felt, which was used for hats like old top hats or cowboy hats when beaver fur was common. Many kinds of animals have been used for fur: fox, rabbit, mink, muskrat, beaver, ermine, otter, sable, seal, coyote, chinchilla, raccoon, and possum. Today some people prefer fake fur as an animal-friendly choice.