and underhairs measuring 12 mm (0.47 in.). otters: "With up to 150,000 strands of hair per square centimeter" chinchilla: "In fact, they have the highest fur density of any land animal with more than 20,000 hairs per square cm." Impressed? Today, we have learned from past mistakes. An abalone has two methods of defense, one is a hard and heavy shell, the other its ability to clamp down with tremendous force when disturbed. animal, with one million hairs per square ... density, and finest texture. So what is it about sea otter fur that’s so alluring? Sea otter fur is the densest of all mammals with 100,000-400,000 hairs/sq cm (that’s up to one million hairs per square inch!) Delivery is a very quick process. Sea otters dive up to 37 m to find food. Instead, they rely on two distinct characteristics of their fur for insulation: Its density and its texture. The sea otter connection. The hair density of adult Eurasian otters Lutra lutra (Linnaeus, 1758) and sea otters Enhydra lutris (Linnaeus, 1758) was analysed using skin samples taken from frozen carcasses. Sea otters can be found in the frigid kelp forests of Northern California, and would not survive the cold without their specialized fur. Fur length varies considerably with the species. (Photo by Angela Denning/KFSK) The population in Southeast is growing steadily. Consider: The fur of the sea otter is denser than that of any other mammal, with some one million hairs per square inch (155,000 per sq cm). Sometimes they use a tool, such as a rock, to help them open the hard shells of their prey. Males weigh 22-45 kg and are 1.2-1.5 m in length. They’re also very rare. Please allow 1-2 weeks with orders. The sea otter’s fur keeps them warm also by trapping air in its coat, but the sea otter’s coat does not shed. The abalone can be from 15-25 cm across and have up to a kilogram of meat inside. Learn how your comment data is processed. Hair density. From being an infant to being an adult, sea otters have an intense life cycle. Now they took to their boats in pursuit of fur so dense, and so valuable, it was known as “soft gold”: sea otter. By the late 1700s, British and American hunters had begun harvesting otter pelts in California and selling them to trading outfits including Hudson’s Bay Company. And so we find ourselves in the high Andes, home of the long-tailed Chinchilla lanigera and short-tailed Chinchilla chinchilla. Females usually give birth about once a year. Today, chinchilla farms are found from Canada to Argentina, and in many European countries, and almost all their stock are believed to descend from Chapman’s original 10. Chinchilla have as many as 1,000. The live on a diet of crabs, urchins, clams, and similar–often using rocks and tools to open shells. Sea otters must eat 25% of their body weight each day in order to stay alive. At its upper range, that’s four times denser than the finest show chin, 16 times denser than a farmed mink, and 2,105 times denser than our human blonde. Females are smaller, weighing 14 to 33 kg (31 to 73 lb) and measuring 1.0 to 1.4 m (3 ft 3 in to 4 ft 7 in) in length. Unlike other marine mammals, the sea otter does not have a layer of blubber to help keep it warm. Pregnancy has been reported to be 4-12 months. This causes chilling and death (hypothermia). The semi-aquatic river otter had a fur density significantly greater than that for the primarily terrestrial ermine, whereas the semi-aquatic mink had a comparably intermediate fur density. Prepare for furs so dense and soft that words to describe them are hard to find. That is dense fur! Lutra lutra exhibited a mean hair density of about 70 000 hairs/cm2 (whole body, appendages excepted), the mean individual density ranging from about 60 000 to 80 000 hairs/cm2. It will return to the surface to either eat or just to get a breath and dive again. Starting from the Kuril Islands, the traders island-hopped across the North Pacific, harvesting one otter population after another, plus highly profitable hair seals they found along the way. North American river otters, also called Canadian otters, have long, muscular, streamlined bodies with short legs and fully webbed feet bearing non-retractable claws. Because the pelts of sea otters are thick, warm and beautiful, fur hunters killed hundreds of thousands of them—until not a single sea otter was visible along the entire California coastline. Center for Biological Diversity: Northern sea otters Their small heads widen to long necks and shoulders, and they have flattened, well-muscled tails. Sea otters have the densest fur in the animal kingdom, ranging from 250,000 to a million hairs per square inch, which insulates them and maintains warmth. Then there’s the number of hairs per follicle. By meeting demand, it reduces pressure on wild populations, as in the case of mink and fox. Very interesting article quite enjoyed it. The tail comprises less than a third of the body length. By the late 1700s, British and American hunters had begun harvesting otter pelts in California and selling them to trading outfits including Hudson’s Bay Company. Sea otters, Enhydra lutris, are listed as Endangered (EN A2abe) with the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: ENDANGERED (EN) Females reach sexual maturity at 4 years. And because human hair varies depending on ethnicity and hair colour, we’ll choose the densest of all, a pale blond(e). They inhabit temperate coastal waters with rocky or soft sediment ocean bottoms less than 1 km from shore. Friends of the Sea Otter That’s almost double Afro-textured hair, the least dense. This caused a huge downfall of the sea otters population, which only got worse. ()also: "Sea otters have an amazing 1 million hairs per square inch. To this day, sea otter trading/selling has become more rare. in 1965 and 1992. The female otter will roll about in the water the same way she does when she is cleaning her tail, and on one roll, will come out of the water with a small, wet pup in her teeth. When a sea otter finds some food, like a shellfish, it will tuck it into loose skin folds in its armpits, which are used like shopping bags. Most mammals fur sheds rain and water, and keeps them warm by trapping air in the underfur (like a down jacket). You can see now why sea otters spend a large portion of time daily grooming themselves as they float on top of the water! As a precaution given the lesson of history, IUCN still classifies them as endangered, but Alaskan fishermen are now complaining the population is growing so fast, they’ve become a pest! But unlike sea otters, the sea cows didn’t survive the onslaught. 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