A Furry Introduction:

All warm blooded, ground-dwelling mammals (including humans) have some sort of hair or fur.

Long or short, fine or thick, fur comes in many colors and textures. Even elephants, rhinos and hippos have coarse and fine hairs on their otherwise leathery hides.

Fur and hair serve all kinds of purposes, from providing insulation from extreme heat and cold, to acting as super sensors in the form of whiskers.

Man has used animal fur and hides throughout millennia for clothing, industry, and even housing.

Some animal fur and fiber is so strong you can even make rope out of it!

Fur can camouflage an animal hiding in the forest, or be used for communication and display.

Primates can stand their body hair on-end when upset, to appear larger and scarier in order to frighten off predators or show dominance within their group.

Animals with furry tails like elephants, horses, and cows have a ready fly swatter, while squirrels puff and shake their tails in spectacular territorial displays.

Millions of hairs are grown and shed regularly by any fur-bearing animal. Large, charismatic species have been hunted to extinction for their fur, hides, horns, and tusks. Rhinos, elephants, bongo, tiger, and bear--just to name a few--all suffer from hunting and poaching, forcing them to the brink of extinction.

Furry Creature Feature: Wonderful Wombats

Native to Australia, there are three species of this unusual marsupial (that means "pouch bearing") mammal. The common wombat (Vombatus ursinus), the southern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus latrifrons), and the northern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus krefftii) are classified in their own family, Vombatidae. Of the three species, the common wombat is most plentiful and lives near the Queensland/New South Wales border, around the coastal (not usually in the dry interior) band through to South Australia. Greyish-brown in color with short, thick fur wombats sort of look like tiny bears with big noses.

The average wombat is about 40 inches long and weighs 55 lbs. They are nocturnal (active at night), love to dig, and live in large burrows underground. Wombats are loners, unless it's breeding season, and spend their nights foraging for grasses and roots. Female wombats usually give birth to a single, tiny, undeveloped baby that must climb into her pouch to nurse and develop. After several months the baby will emerge to learn how to forage for food, but will return to the pouch for safety and security. When the baby is fully developed (about six months old) and too big for the pouch, the mother will refuse to let it back in. Babies will stay with their mothers for up to one year after leaving the pouch.

We'd like to thank Rob Shrieber for his great wombat photo. For more information about wombats visit his website, Wonderful Wombats.

What's in a Name?

Pictured above is a small animal with a big name. The endangered golden-rumped elephant shrew (Rhynchocyon chrysopygus) lives in Africa and is the size of a small rabbit. The elephant shrew is so named because of its long, mobile nose, which it uses to feel and sniff out its favorite food--insects like grasshoppers, beetles, and spiders.

Up Close and Personal

Click on the image above to zoom in on this spectacular mandril baboon (mandrillus sphinx) from Afrcia. Shift-click to zoom out, hold your cursor over the edges to pan left, right, up and down. Stay away from those 4-inch incisors...

Do you have a Furry Fact you'd like to share? If so, e-mail us at the link below.

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Mammals That Lay Eggs

Did you know that certain mammals lay eggs? That's right, the Australian short-nosed echidna or spiny anteater (Tachyglossus aculeatus) is one of only three species of mammal that lay eggs (a non-mammalian feature) but suckle their young (a mammalian feature). Echidnas lay a single egg reptile-like rubbery-shelled egg, which she then transfers to a fold of skin on her belly. When the egg hatches, the tiny baby stays in the "pouch" to nurse and develop. The only other egg laying mammals are duck-billed platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), and the long-nosed echidna (Zaglossus bruijni).

Hairless Cat

Bald is Beautiful

In the wild, fur bearing mammals do not often give birth to babies that cannot grow fur. But, domestic animals are bred according to the whims of the breeder, and traits unwelcome in the wild are often selected for in captivity. Pictured here is a lovely shpynx cat, photo courtesy of Les Sphynx du Temple d'Amon. This breed of domestic cat is the product of selectively breeding certain cats until a hairless cat is produced. Hairless pets are becoming very popular and you can now find several types of hairless dogs, cats, rats, and even guinea pigs.

I'm the Smallest in the World

The endangered pygmy mouse lemur (Microcebus myoxinus) of Madagascar is the smallest primate in the world, weighing just 40-60 g. and measuring only 6-7 cm in length. In fact, this picture is larger that the actual animal! Active at night, these little creatures live in dry forest trees and have excellent night vision and large, round eyes. Their favorite foods are fruit, flowers and insects. We'd like to thank the Duke Institute of Genome Sciences for this great mouse lemur photo.

Just the Facts

Bats are the only truly flying mammal, although some mammals like flyinng squirrels and sugar gliders have flaps of skin between thier front and hind legs that helps them glide from tree branch to tree branch.

Sloths move so slowly that algea grows on their coats.

No two spotted or striped animals (like zebras, leopards, and giraffe) are exactly alike. The spots and stripes are like the animal's fingerprints--each one unique.

What's the difference between horns and antlers? Antlers are "shed" annually to grow new ones, but horns stay on forever.

Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) give birth under water and can open their mouths over 4 feet wide!

The average porcupine has about 30,000 quills.

The nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) always gives birth to 4 babies of the same sex.
An elephant (Loxodonta africana) can smell water up to three miles away.

Groups of mammals are called: troop (baboons); sounder (boars); caravan (camels); cloud (foxes); pod (seals); and crash (rhinoceri).