7 animals that sweat | AZ Animals

Sweat can be dirty, unpleasant and unpleasant, but it is a unique human phenomenon that helps us become who we are. Sweating is a cooling mechanism that works to keep your core body temperature at a reasonable 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Sweat, mostly made up of water, potassium, salt and other minerals, literally serves to release excess heat generated by the muscles when other cooling methods are not working. Otherwise, if we didn’t sweat, we would overheat and die. But did you know that there are animals that sweat too?

Despite how necessary it is for human health, perspiration is actually a rare occurrence in the animal kingdom. True sweating is mainly seen in primates and horses. Instead, most animals have learned to regulate their body temperature in a variety of ways, including breathing, rolling in the mud, swimming in water, staying in the shade, and urinating or defecating all over their bodies. Some animals also have very long ears with many blood vessels that release excess heat into the air.

The anatomy of perspiration is critical to understanding how it works. To simplify things a bit, there are usually two different types of sweat glands: the apocrine glands and the eccrine glands. The apocrine glands, located at the base of hair follicles, primarily evolved to produce odors in the form of pheromones, territorial markers, and warning signals; they are very rarely used to cool the body on warm days (although there are some exceptions). The eccrine glands, located close to the surface of the skin, mainly produce sweat for the purpose of thermoregulation.

In most mammals, most of the body is covered with apocrine glands. Primates (in particular chimpanzees and gorillas) are the only group of mammals with a relatively large number of eccrine glands compared to apocrine glands.

Likewise, humans are the only species on the planet whose bodies are almost completely covered by eccrine glands (with the exception of a few places such as armpits, ear canals, eyelids, and nipples). We have between two and five million of these glands throughout the body. Together, they produce about 12 liters of sweat per day, more than any other animal.

The evolution of (relatively) naked skin was considered a prerequisite for the evolution of sweat in humans. Sweat easily evaporates from naked skin while it builds up around dense hair follicles, which will have a counterproductive effect. The development of sweat, in turn, allowed humans to hunt game over long distances on hot days, while most other species easily overheat.

In this article, we’ll take a look at 7 major animals (besides humans) that produce some form of perspiration. The list will only include those animals that sweat to release heat, cool the body, or moisturize the skin in some way. It will not include general sweating for other survival purposes.

# 7 An animal that sweats: horses and donkeys

Anyone who has ever worked with horses long enough will notice that they do have the ability to produce foam or foam on the body, especially around the hind legs and neck, when exercising or working in hot conditions. This foam resembles sweat in many ways, but it actually contains a unique protein called a shroud that gives sweat a frothy appearance.

The foam allows perspiration to penetrate the entire surface of waterproof hair from base to tip. This, in turn, increases its exposure to the air, so it eventually evaporates from the body. Latherin is also present in saliva, helping the horse chew on high fiber foods.

When a horse works especially hard, it can easily lose about 4 gallons of sweat per hour, depending on the intensity of the exercise and the ambient temperature. In comparison, a horse typically drinks 10 to 20 gallons of water a day. The effectiveness of this cooling system reduces the horse’s need to breathe heavily in hot conditions, and this can be a sign of a health problem if the horse is unable to sweat properly.

The horse is not the only member of the horse group with the ability to produce frothy sweat mixed with foam. It is also a well-documented phenomenon in donkeys. The foam appears to serve the same purpose.

# 6 Animal that sweats: zebras

Zebras, like horses and donkeys, belong to the genus Equus. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that their bodies also have the ability to create the same frothy lather, which helps ease evaporation and cooling around the hair. What’s especially interesting about the zebra is that the foam can interact with the stripes in a unique way. Some scientists speculate that sticking out black hair may help sweat to evaporate during the hottest hours of the day.

However, the evolution of striped zebras is still a controversial issue, and thermoregulation is just one of many hypotheses.

# five Sweating animal: chimpanzee

Chimpanzees are often referred to as humanity’s closest living relative because we have approximately 98.8% of the same DNA. One of our things in common is the ability to sweat.

As mentioned earlier, chimpanzees have a high ratio of eccrine to apocrine glands, presumably to help them regulate their body temperature. However, their perspiration is not as efficient as in humans, both due to the lower density of the glands on their skin and their thick coat. For this reason, chimpanzees still rely on other methods to keep their cool.

# 4 Animal that sweats: gorillas

Another close human relative, gorillas, also have the ability to sweat in warm weather to stay cool and comfortable, but thermoregulation is just one of the goals of the sweat glands.

Just like chimpanzees and humans, gorillas have a specialized tissue called the armpit, or axillary organ, located in the armpits. This organ is especially pronounced in male gorillas. It consists of four to six layers of glands that secrete sweat and other odors. This actually serves the main purpose of facilitating communication within the entire group. The scent alerts other members of the group when potential threats are lurking nearby. It is also a useful sign of fertility.

For some unknown reason, people still retain a strong underarm odor, even though they don’t seem to make much sense. This created a little scientific puzzle.

# 3 The animal that sweats: the monkeys of the Old World

The Old World monkey is a whole family of primates, mostly native to Africa and Asia. Macaques and baboons are the most famous representatives of this group. This does not include New World monkeys such as monkeys and tamarins, and Madagascar’s lemurs.

Macaques are a genus of Old World monkeys; There are 23 species in this group, most of which are native to Asia. The most famous species are probably the rhesus monkey and the Japanese macaque. Although they have the ability to sweat, it is not as pronounced as their monkey cousins. This is probably due to the fact that they have a fairly even distribution on their skin between the eccrine and apocrine glands.

The baboon is another genus of Old World monkeys comprising six different species found in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. They are characterized by a dog’s face, powerful jaws, sharp teeth, short tails, a relatively large body size and protruding buttocks. Baboons also have several eccrine glands covering their bodies. Some research confirms that they do produce sweat in response to heat.

# 2 Animal that sweats: dogs

You may be a little surprised to learn that dogs have a group of eccrine glands (sometimes also called merocrine glands) around their paw pads. They have the same function as the human sweat glands – they cool the body. If you look closely, on a hot day you can sometimes see sweat collecting on your paws. Relatively bare skin makes perspiration possible. But this is why sweat is limited to only the pads of the paws.

Due to their thick coat, dogs cannot sweat most of their bodies. They must still breathe to stay cool.

# one Animal that sweats: hippopotamus

Contrary to popular misconception, the hippopotamus does not produce real sweat at all, but this is still interesting for another reason. This large semi-aquatic African herbivore secretes a red gooey liquid filled with mucus that acts as a kind of moisturizer, sunscreen, and antibiotic. This sweat is initially colorless, but it actually turns red and brown when it interacts with certain pigments. People have nicknamed him bloody sweat, although there is no blood or real sweat in it. While sweat is incredibly beneficial, it doesn’t serve thermoregulatory purposes.

To stay cool, the hippopotamus likes to wallow in the mud or stay mostly submerged in water during the day.

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