Hair is a common staple for many living things and most especially humans. But did you know that there are animals out there without hair? That is right; many animals haven’t a single strand of hair on their heads. Here is a list of animals without a single strand of hair.
This article is meant to take a deep look at animals that don’t have any hair to speak of.
Unique animals with no hair
Beluga Whale
Beluga whales live in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions of the world. They are commonly mistaken for specters of the sea due to their hairless bodies and pale moon-light-colored skin. Incredibly friendly, although they are natural predators. They choose to snack on fish, jellyfish, and other smaller marine life that dares cross their paths with the great beluga whale.
Beluga whales can dive for up to 25 minutes and reach depths of 800 meters. They are such skilled swimmers that they can swim backward.
Sea Horse
Sea horses are strange animals without hair because they can actively switch gender should they feel the need. If the male sea horse is required to have children because the female is a better resource gatherer, he will house the eggs within his body, becoming pregnant. Upon giving birth, the newly female seahorse can choose to switch back to her birth gender.
All of this gender switching is helped by the fact that sea horses are without hair. No doubt, it would be much more difficult with hair.
Donskoy
These cats are also known as the Russian hairless; you guessed it, they are originally from Russia and without hair. Before you ask, allow me to dispel notions of a familial connection between this cat and the much more famous Sphinx cat. Why are these particular breeds of cats hairless? The explanation is rooted in an intricate winding of biology and neurology. Still, the quick and simple summary is the recession keratin 71 gene causes their appearance.
Peterbald
Perhaps all hairless cat breeds hail from Russia. This cat breed is quite recent in terms of being birthed into the world. Having first been created in St.Peters-burg in 1994 by the world-renowned experimental breeder Olga S. of Mironova. They bear a great resemblance to the Oriental Shorthairs, but if they had been stricken with a powerful hair loss gene. A breed is so renowned that it was accepted for the Championship class of 2009.
Peterbalds are known to live for 10 years.
Hippopotamus
Hippopotamus doesn’t have a single hair on their bodies, which allows them to become agile swimmers.
Hippopotamuses are among the best swimmers in the world among land-based mammals. There are only two species of hippopotamus in the world but don’t grow too much of a soft heart for these ferocious beasts because their maw has the strength to tear you into two pieces with just a single clamp.
Hippopotamus are extremely fast on land, and you won’t be able to outrun one.
Bambino cat
This cat breed has a familial connection to the sphinx, unlike the pretenders further up on this list. The Bambino cat breed was created by cross-breeding a Sphynx and the Munchkin breeds of cats. Because of this choice in parents, this breed of cats has short stubby little legs and large upright ears. Of course, their
most defining feature is their lack of hair. Yet another hairless cat breed has been brought into the world through experimentation.
They have a lifespan of nine to fifteen years.
Naked Mole Rat
Naked mole rats are among some of the strangest-looking animals in the world. They have large buck teeth and a body that has not a single hair throughout it. This leaves their pink flesh exposed to the world. It appears their skin is sagging, and they burrow underground to protect themselves from predators and the sun’s harsh rays. Due to having no hair, they run a much greater risk of sunburn. This could lead to their deaths due to the high likely hood of infection and disease.
They are native to many parts of East Africa, which is strange because most people identify them with the
The United States. Perhaps it has something to do with the naked mole rats’ appearance.
Strange animals with no hair
Angler Fish
Angler fish are the great fishermen of the ocean’s depths. They lure in smaller creatures with the little light at the end of their antenna-like appendage. This antenna can pierce the rock bottom’s great cloak of darkness, and a sign of hope comes into that void. A single ray of light dares speak out against the cold, but the hopeful, the lively who dare venture toward it finds darkness greater than the one they had been trying to escape.
They can grow to a size of three feet and three inches.
Vampire Jellyfish
This hairless animal is the strangest-looking thing you will see on this list. Each of its tentacles has a barbed wire-like appearance. Sharp hooks jut out from each direction.
The vampire jellyfish have a unique metabolism that allows them to prosper in areas of the ocean with very little oxygen. They only grow to 12 inches in length and are native to tropical and temperate oceans. Their bioluminescent organs mean a brilliant display of lights is ignited wherever they go.
These jellyfish are alien-like, and you would be forgiven for mistaking them for an octopus or even a mini-sea monster.
Portuguese Man-O-War
The deadliest animal on this list and their hairless appearance have nothing to do with it. The Portuguese Man-O-War can easily kill a grown man, and they have been known to drift into areas in which humans can be found swimming and frolicking. They only have a life span of one year, and their beautiful head is always above water, acting as a sail for this great warship.
These creatures are not jellyfish despite bearing a great resemblance to them and if you wish to live, avoid their tentacles at all costs.
Garter Snake
The Garter snake is a great representative of the hairless animals grouping. This is because, unlike our previous entrants, these scaly critters are harmless. They are small to medium-sized snakes that live in North and Central America. If you live in any of those two areas, you have a high potential of coming across these great and friendly animals but you should be advised to stay away from them. This is because even though the Garter Snake is harmless, you may mistake believing that a dangerous snake is a garter snake.
From the tips of Canada to the ends of Costa Rica, there exist many lands in which you can find the harmless Garter Snake.
Red-Eyed Tree Frog
The Red-Eyed Tree Frog plants its eggs at the top of pitcher-like plants that collect water. The eggs hatch and then fall into these safe pools of water where they will spend time maturing, and once they are old enough, they leave the safety of their home. Venturing out into the world and into larger bodies of water where they will hunt and find a mate to create a generation anew.
They have quite a life span, ranging from 8 to 12 years, but usually, they don’t live for this long because predators make quick work of these tasty critters.
Blue Whale
Blue whales are the biggest animal on the planet. Nothing else comes close to this titan that can grow to an average length of 29.9 meters. If you wanted to know how long that is in feet, that would be 95 feet long. They can also weigh up to 199 metric tons. Truly, the largest animal that has ever lived and a friendly giant to boot. Their heart is five feet long, but they are no speed demons.
Only averaging 5 miles per hour but can kick it into overdrive for a few short bursts of 20 miles per hour.
Why do some animals have no hair?
Some animals don’t have hair because they learned to live in environments where hair was a detriment to their survival rather than an advantage. This leads to them evolving without the need for hair. Others either started as genetic abnormalities that eventually became their species or due to a particularly bad case of mange.
No matter the reasoning, all of the animals listed above are unique and wonderful creatures that don’t have a single hair on their bodies. Cute and simple.