• Question: why do dogs have more hair on their bodies than humans?

    Asked by maevelewisxo to Damien, Rachael, Simon, Suzi, Tim on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi @maevelewisxo
      Actually, dogs don’t have hair, they have fur, although it’s practically the same under a microscope as our hair. The main difference is that our hair grows independently, whereas a dog’s fur grows at the same rate across it’s body, and at different rates depending on the season.

      The reason they have this fur and we only hair tiny hairs on our body (apart from head and a few other places), is that they don’t wear clothes. So they need their fur to keep their body at the correct temperature. Their fur over their body traps a layer of air between it and their skin, which can keep them warm during cold weather, and cool during hot weather. It can also protect them from rain.

      Hope this answers your question.

    • Photo: Damien Hall

      Damien Hall answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      You’d need to ask someone who studies the biology of evolution for a real answer. But I think it probably has to do with what our species have evolved from and to. Way back in Earth’s history, the species that evolved into what we are today had hair all over their bodies as well: they needed it to keep warm! But, I think, we evolved to have other ways of keeping warm – like living in caves, using fire, and wearing animal skins and other clothing – so we didn’t need as much body-hair any more, though we do still have very soft, thin hair all over most of our skin, if you look very carefully.

      The story of dogs must be something similar to that. They’re still closer to being a wild animal than we are, so their species is still closer to when they had to live in the wild and needed all that hair to keep warm, even though dogs in most countries live in houses with people now. There are still wild dogs in Australia and maybe other places.

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