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Baseball players may have superstitions about shaving based on averages and winning streaks. Some players are known to even shave off their mustaches in the middle of a game for good luck! But besides increasing the Yankees’ chances of winning, why do people have hair? Humans are the only mammal to have hair on their heads, but very little hair on the rest of their bodies. Three reasons people have hair might be to protect our head from the sun, warm our head (and brain) at night, and help us choose a life partner! Are elephants combing their hair to attract a mate? Are they covered in hair to protect them from the African sun? Let’s find out everything there is to know about elephant wool!
Elephants have air conditioning!
According to a study at Princeton University, the researchers found that elephant hair serves as a cooling mechanism that removes heat from the body, “perhaps similar to how previous research suggests thorns help cool plants like cacti.”
Many animals have wool or fur to keep warm. Think of a huge polar bear and its thick fur coat. But researchers have found that when hair is sparse, like elephants’ hair, it serves as a cooling liquid. Elephants use other methods to keep their cool, such as using their trunk to suck in water and splash it on their backs. Their large ears also play an important role in temperature control. The researchers found that hair is especially beneficial on calm days when the wind does not help cool the giant animals.
Which elephants have the most wool?
- Asian elephants have more hair than African elephants.
- Little elephants have more hair than adult elephants.
- Baby Asian elephants have the most wool. Their bodies are covered with dark reddish brown hair that covers most of their bodies.
Where is the hair?
Elephants have hair all over their bodies, but unevenly scattered. Most of the hair is around the eyes, ears, chin, torso and tail. Let’s take a look at the purpose of their body hair.
Elephant trunk hair
Elephant trunks have a small amount of wool, but uniform. Like other parts of their body with little hair, the hair on the trunk effectively cools the trunks of elephants. Interestingly, “elephant trunk hair” is also a hairstyle reminiscent of what you saw in the movie. Grease!
Ivory Tail Hair: Built-in Fly Swatter!
The hairs at the end of their tail are coarse and used as a built-in fly swatter to keep pesky flies from landing and biting. The hairs at the ends of their trunks are very sensitive, almost like a cat’s whiskers. They can use the senses in this hair to find food and sense where the rest of the herd is to stay close to their mother when needed.
If elephants are relatives of woolly mammoths, why did mammoths have so much hair?
Asian elephants were associated with their ancestor, the woolly mammoth. It is believed that mammoths have a thick fur coat. Cause? Two words, ice age. Mammoths needed a way to maintain temperatures during the Ice Age to stay warm, so they had huge winter fur coats. Elephants living in hot Asian climates and African savannas, of course, don’t need a fur coat!
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