Elephnt hair helps them stay cool

In most animals it evolved to help them stay warm, but elephants use their hair to cool off, according to a new study.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/9622721/Elephant-hair-helps-them-stay-cool.html

littlewid-x-

Interesting article thanks Littlewid. I never knew that.

Lai

Very interesting indeed.

I also remember hearing that elephant’s ears make up 20% of their skin surface. Apparently when they flap those ears they cool down up to 60% of the body temp.

Essential in that heat for them I imagine. Thanks for the info Chris-AWD.

Lai

It's not something I knew either Lai and thats the kind of article that really interests me, it's kind of the opposite to what we would imagine.

I knew elephants flapped their ears to help them stay cool Chris but I didn't know to what extent it helped to cool them and thats a large percentage. It makes you wonder if thats why they are designed that way. I know we would think elephants would look silly with small ears but Rhino's and Hippo's are large animals but they have small ears and I wonder if thats because they spend their time wallowing to keep cool so they are designed to have small ears, I know eles do love water and spray mud over themselves to keep cool but mainly they are on dry land in the heat so their evolution may have designed them to have ear coolers......if that makes any sense to anyone apart from me :?:

littlewid-x-

................................ umm yes, Littlewid.

Lai

Amazing is'nt it after all this time, and study we're still learning new facts. I also knew they flapped their ears to cool, but not that they such a big effect on cooling them down, thanks Chris. I know Hippos excrete a type of sunscreen to stop themselves being sunburned, but although they spend so much time in the water, they can still be burned. How Rhinos stay cool I have no idea, perhaps one to look into.
WS

Just to clarify the elephants ears thing - I think you might be thinking that they use their ears to "fan" themselves cool.

That is not how it works. The ears are full of bloodvesels just under the skin. So by flapping their ears they increase the rate at which heat "exits" their bodies.

Re the hippos - during the day they have to spend their days submerged in water, which must be at least 1,5 meters deep because on land they overheat and dehydrate.

They suffer from sunburn, which cracks their skin. One of the strangest possible sights you will see on an African Safari is that an overheated hippo looks as if it is sweating blood.

These are mucus glands in their skin that contains a red pigment. This mucus acts as a very effective sunscreen.

Thanks Chris. That was the sunscreen I was on about, I think there have been some photos on here somwhere of Hippos doing that, but just cant remember where. Yes you would think its a fan based action, but its amazing to know how it actualy works, I did'nt know that so thanks again.
WS