Why did camels grow thick fur?

0:46 Welcome to Science is Not Boring by kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. Before we dive in, we have some amazing shout-outs today. A big hello to A. H. Enders, who is five and a half, in Paris, France.

1:02 A.H. Enders actually gave us today's topic. He asked why monkeys and other animals have long hair, even in very hot places. This one is for you, A.H. Enders.

1:13 We also have a huge happy birthday to Arthur in Toronto, Canada, celebrating with his brother Nolan.

1:21 And a big belated happy birthday to Leia, who celebrated on the 12th. We hope it was awesome.

1:28 If you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode.

1:33 Okay, Mira, close your eyes and imagine this. You are standing in the hottest desert on Earth. The sun is beating down on you. And I hand you a giant thick winter coat to wear. You would melt, right?

1:51 I would definitely turn into a sweaty puddle. But for some animals, putting on that thick, fuzzy winter coat in boiling hot weather is the only thing keeping them from cooking alive. It sounds completely backwards, but it is true.

2:08 Wait, seriously? Fur in the extreme heat? How does that even make sense?

2:14 Today we are travelling to the most blistering environments on Earth to uncover the incredible, heat-deflecting superpowers of animal fur. When we think of fur, we usually picture polar bears or arctic foxes shivering in the freezing cold.

2:30 Yeah, their thick fur traps their body heat like a giant fuzzy blanket, so they don't turn into living ice cubes.

2:37 Exactly! But here is the crazy science secret. Fur isn't just a heater, it is actually an insulator. An insulator? What does that mean exactly? An insulator is a material that stops heat from moving from one place to another. Think of a thermos bottle that you take to school. If you pour hot chocolate inside it, the thermos keeps the heat from escaping, so your drink stays hot all day long.

3:04 Oh, I get it. But if you put freezing cold ice water in that exact same thermos, it stops the outside heat from getting in, so the water stays freezing cold all day long. You got it!

3:17 Fur works the exact same way. It traps a tiny layer of air right next to the animal's skin, acting like a barrier.

3:25 So, in a really hot place, the fur stops the heat of the sun from reaching the animal's body.

3:30 Yes. Let's head to the Sahara Desert in Africa to see this in action. The Sahara is gigantic, about 9.2 million square kilometres. That's roughly the size of the entire United States.

3:44 Whoa! And it's basically an endless ocean of scorching hot sand. Scorching is an understatement.

3:51 The sand there can reach an unbelievable 80 degrees Celsius. That is 176 degrees Fahrenheit.

4:00 If you walked on that barefoot, your feet would literally blister in seconds.

4:04 And the air temperature often hits a sweltering 50 degrees Celsius. With no shade for miles, surviving here takes a true superpower. Enter the ultimate desert survivor, the dromedary camel!

4:17 Oh, I know camels, the ones with the giant humps on their backs. They have lots of thick, coarse fur, especially around their humps and shoulders.

4:26 Yep, for a long time, people wondered how camels could just stand out in the blazing sun all day. A famous scientist named Knut Schmidt Nielsen studied them to find out. He decided to measure the exact temperature of a camel's fur in the scorching desert sun using special instruments. And? How hot was their fur getting?

4:48 Was it basically on fire? The very outer tips of the camel's fur, the part taking the direct hit from the sun, reached a mind-boggling 70 degrees Celsius!

4:59 Wait, 70 degrees Celsius? That is 158 degrees Fahrenheit! That is literally hot enough to fry an egg on their backs.

5:08 It is! The surface of the camel is dangerously hot. But then, the scientists checked the camel's actual skin temperature, right underneath that roasting fur. What was it? Was the camel cooking on the inside? Nope. The skin was sitting at a perfectly safe, cool 40 degrees Celsius. Or 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

5:31 No way! A 30 degree difference just from some fur. Exactly. That thick fur acts as an ultimate thermal shield. It absorbs all the blistering heat and completely blocks it from ever reaching the camel's skin.

5:46 So the camel is basically carrying around its own personal shade tent.

5:50 It is! Knut Schmidt-Nielsen actually proved this with an experiment where they shaved a camel.

5:56 Haha, a bald camel. That sounds ridiculous.

5:59 It might look funny, but it was bad news for the camel. The shaved camel started sweating 50% more than a furry camel, just trying to stay cool.

6:10 It lost way too much water. So without its winter coat, the desert animal would actually overheat and dehydrate much faster. That is completely wild.

6:20 Now let's answer Andes' awesome question. We are leaving the desert and heading to the savanna and the jungle to talk about monkeys and primates.

6:30 Yeah! Places like the African savannah or tropical jungles in Asia are super sweaty and hot. Why do monkeys need thick hair there? For a few brilliant reasons.

6:42 First up, extreme sun protection. Primates like baboons live out on the open African savannah where there are barely any trees to hide under. The sun beats down with fierce ultraviolet radiation all day long.

6:58 Ultraviolet radiation? You mean UV rays? The stuff that gives us terrible sunburns?

7:04 Exactly! If a baboon had bare skin all over, it would suffer from agonising sunburns every single day. Their dense hair completely blocks those harsh UV rays, acting like a permanent layer of SPF-50 sunscreen. Oh, so it's a built-in sunshirt! That's genius! But that's not all. Tropical rainforests in Asia, where you find macaques, are swarming with tiny, blood-sucking enemies.

7:34 Tiny enemies? You mean bugs, like biting flies, giant mosquitoes, ticks, and nasty gnats?

7:41 Exactly! A thick coat of fur is basically an impenetrable suit of armour against those biters. A tiny mosquito simply cannot reach a macaque's skin through an inch of densely packed fur.

7:55 Bug spray you never have to wash off. But wait, don't the bugs get stuck in there?

8:01 They do! And that's why monkeys spend hours picking through each other's fur. It's called grooming, and it keeps their armour perfectly clean while helping them make friends. But here is where it gets really weird, Finn. Some primates have extra long fur that doesn't just protect them from the sun or bugs.

8:20 It actually sends a loud and clear message to everyone around them. A message? Like what? Look at my awesome hair. Basically, yes. Male hammer dryer spaboons grow a massive cape of long silvery hair over their shoulders and backs. This fabulous cape is called a mantle.

8:40 A hair cape? That sounds like a superhero costume. But doesn't wearing a giant cape make them way too hot in the African heat?

8:49 You would think so, but the hair in the mantle is quite loose. It lets the savannah breeze flow right through it so it doesn't trap excess body heat.

8:59 So why grow a giant cape if it's not for trapping heat or stopping bugs? To show off to the whole troupe.

9:05 It signals dominance. When other baboons see that massive, impressive cape of hair, they know that male is strong, healthy, and in charge of the group.

9:15 It's like wearing a giant crown made of hair. Nature is so wild.

9:20 It really is. And here is a mind-blowing fun fact about humans. Millions of years ago, we actually evolved to lose most of our fur so we could run long distances and cool down by sweating.

9:34 Wait, but if we lost our fur, how do we survive the heat and the sun without getting roasted like a shaved camel?

9:41 We had to invent clothes. People living in hot deserts have worn long, flowing robes for thousands of years to create a layer of cool air next to their skin, doing exactly what a camel's fur does naturally.

9:55 That is incredible. We basically had to invent fake fur just to survive the heat that animals can handle naturally.

10:01 Alright, Finn, time for the quiz. Are you ready? Okay, I'm ready. First question. What temperature can a camel's out of fur reach in the Sahara Desert? Next one, this is tricky. What is the temperature of the camel's skin underneath that hot fur? Question three. Besides blocking the sun, what does thick fur protect tropical monkeys from?

10:36 Alright, here's number four. What do male baboons use their long capes of hair to show? Last question. What does an animal's fur act like which keeps both heat in and heat out? Great job! Let's go through the answers. The answer to question one is a camel's outer fur can reach a sizzling 70 degrees Celsius.

11:09 For question two, the camel's skin stays at a cool 40 degrees Celsius. Number three, the answer is thick fur protects them from biting bugs and insects. Question 4. They use their hair capes to show dominance and strength. And the final answer is fur acts as an insulator, just like a thermos.

11:33 Man, I will never look at a fuzzy animal the same way again. Their hair is basically a high-tech survival suit.

11:40 I know, right? Whether it is shielding a camel from the blistering Sahara sun or protecting a baboon from bugs. Fur is absolutely incredible.

11:50 If you love learning about our furry desert friends, please leave us a five-star review. Just scroll down and tap the stars.

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12:12 Want your name on the show? Send us an email at hello at kidopoly.com. Thanks for exploring with us today. See you next time on Science Is Not Boring. Bye! Bye!