What color is zebra's skin if you shave it?
Spring is coming, and as some of us prepare to trade snowsuits for swimsuits, we may find a few extra pounds under our winter coats.
Animals are smart.They don't take their coats off.Animals change their coats for winter.
What does animal skin look like under fur or hair?The Weird Animal Question of the Week was asked by Christian Meyer.
Hair color is determined by cells in hair follicles.Greg Barsh is a geneticist at the Hudson Alpha Biotechnology Institute.
According to Barsh, the two systems are controlled by different genes, hormones, and other factors.
Domestic cats, domestic dogs, horses, zebras, and cheetahs are examples of animals where stripes are not apparent in skin.
The zebra skin is black under their coats.The giraffe's skin is a light tan that is similar in color to its coat, and its patterns are not visible, according to a materials scientist.Read why zebras have stripes.
There are no spots or lines on the skin of cheselers, which are more closely related to small cats.You can learn more about van der Merwe's work.
According to van der Merwe, big cats have skin patterns that mirror their fur.The same goes for snow leopards, as seen in this video of a captive cat undergoing a surgical procedure to relieve kidney stones.
Barsh says that the colored hair follicles embedded in the skin are similar to a man's five-o'clock shadow.
An independent big cat researcher, who has shaved the skin of wild cougars to draw blood or place tags, has also observed the animals have the same skin color.Their fur is varying degrees of brown, white, gray, and even black hair and the "follicles seem to give the skin a slightly different contrast."
The polar bears have black skin under their fur, which helps absorb the sun's rays.
wee patches of black skin are visible when the bears are out of their undercoat.
The bears look white on the ice because of the way the hair scatters light.This helps the predator blend into their environment.The polar bears are dealing with a changing climate.
Some Old World monkeys, including patas, mandrills, vervets and talapoins, have blue testicles.
The blue pigments are linked to sexual selection.In mandrills, color is linked to social status.