A question about fur
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by
mistyfriday
I know the flash in these up close, night shots distorts things. The fur on the buffalo always appears so sparse, thin. Is that just some sort of an optical affect from the flash or does their fur tend to be on the thinner side. Maybe because of the warm climate? I just notice in all of these night shots and it has made me curious. Thanks for any input.
Posted
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by
davidbygott
moderator
You're right, their hair is sparse. There is a very general tendency for mammals to lose hair as body mass increases. Think of elephant, rhino, hippo. Little mammals have a problem keeping warm, and their fur is insulation; larger mammals have a problem keeping cool, so they have lost that insulating layer and also developed other cooling mechanisms (wallowing/resting in water, dewlaps or huge ears to radiate heat, etc). Buffalo are apparently at the top end of the scale of hair-covered animals.
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by
mistyfriday
Oh, thanks so much for the answer. I've been wondering about that since I first started doing these! Now I know for sure what I have been seeing.
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