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Transcript

Why Are Some Animals Curly? · We Are Spiraling

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Poodles were originally water dogs.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: They were working guard dogs along the water.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: They were not to be trifled with.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: They were warmier dogs.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is Priya Adant and we are spiraling.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: In this show, we use curly hair as a lens to investigate our world.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anyone who didn't see the viral curly lion phone recently?
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Between that and the fact that I always call every curly dog I see on the street my hair twin, and that is said with a lot of affection, we're answering a very important question in this episode.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: What role does curly hair play for animals?
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was researching who might be able to help answer this sort of weird question, and I found her.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: A scientist who explained animal mating systems in a TED talk using the hip-hop song OPP by Naughty by Nature.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: First, we take a moment to appreciate that pun.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And now we'll get to the episode.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: I am Dr.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Danielle N.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: Lee.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: I am an assist no, I've been promoted.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: I am an associate professor of biological sciences at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: I teach general biology to freshmen, both majors and non-majors.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: I teach graduate courses as well as mammalogy.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: Mammology is the study of mammals.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: So in the animal kingdom, it's all the animals that possess these three traits.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: They have fur or hair, they lactate, and they have these really special earbones.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: That is what makes a mammal.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: Now we often hear, like, oh, warm-blooded.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: That's not unique to mammals.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: Our bird cousins can also do that.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: So that's not unique to mammals.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: But the three traits that define what a mammal is this unique set of ear bones or ossicles.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: And where the name comes from, making lactating milk, mammy.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: M-A-M-M-A-E, mammae, mammary glands.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: So being able to make your own food from these specialized, what we think evolutionarily comes from are derived from sweat glands.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: So imagine a specialized sweat gland makes this nutritive substance.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's what makes a mammal a mammal.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you have an additional specialty, which I will say seems absolutely like a specialty.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: You did a TED talk about how songbirds are not monogamous and you used hip hop to help explain that.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: It was a song called OPP by Naughty by Nature, which Naughty by Nature.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's also a bit of a pun there that I can appreciate for this.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you said hip hop helps us understand science.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: So please tell me how you found this specialty for yourself.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope you can bring it into this conversation too.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: It may happen.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I do, so that's the other thing.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_02: I do use a lot of pop reference and pop culture in my explanation of science.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: So, like these days, I use a lot of anime because I've started watching anime with students.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I use a lot of those references.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: But it's this idea of taking what we already know, like where's our cultural lexicon?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: And for me as a younger person, hip hop was my cultural lexicon.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: It was the music I was listening to.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: So it was a part of my background.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: And then finding a relationship between my everyday and then what was becoming my new everyday, which was science.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: And so finding that connection.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_02: Still use hip-hop as a background, and now I expanded a little bit more out to pop culture.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: And then I encourage students to kind of use their own version of that, whether they're listening to current hip-hop or other genres of music or other genres of entertainment.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: How can you find that connection between the culture and entertainment that you're seeing every day?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know, how can you take these bits and pieces and make it your own?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: And then how do you use it for serving whatever is important to you and your communities?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: So some animals they're curly.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Some animals are not curly, just like us.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Some are curly, some are not.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: How does that happen?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: So, so curly hair happens in the wild, and we I think most of us are more familiar with it in domesticated animals.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: But so how it happens at the base level is there's a gene for it.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: And the gene is called the Rex gene, R E X gene, which in Latin means king.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: We are royalty.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: We are royalty, the curly top, yes.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: So that's how it happens, and so there's a gene for it.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot of that is just what you inherit genetically.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: Now, among humans, we know that there's a relationship for the most part between our hair pattern and then the environment that our ancestors lived in.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: We know among animals there's a relationship too.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: We don't tend to think of it in animals because it's not as prominent.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: But what hair is, so think of it this way: we use it in a lot of cultural ways, but what a hair is, regardless of how curly, you know, regardless of your patterns, anywhere from 1A all the way up to 4C, it is a hint into how the folks or the things in your taxonomic background, it gives a hint into how they had to make a living.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so here's the advantage of hair, curly hair.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: Curly hair is really amazing from a thermal regulation point of view.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: So it gives me, so if you follow this like an investigator.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: My specialty, investigative reporter.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: Investigator reporter, you can use today's traits, and then I can back calculate, I can, in other words, I can put together a really good story to go, okay, this person's ancestors, if this curl pattern is consistent in their family line, it can give hints into how they made a living and where they may have made a living, the types of climates that they live.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: That's because curly hair is really good for insulation.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so thermal regulation.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: Mammals, even though we can make our own heat, so this idea of warm-bloodedness, we can make our own heat.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: We can keep our body temperature constant, which is important for making a living and staying, staying alive, especially if you're living in very cold places.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: But even if you live in hot places, you still want to maintain your optimal temperature.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: You don't want your temperature going up and down all willy-nilly.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: That can mess you up too.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: And mammals aren't designed for that.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: We're designed to keep it within this band, this little range.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: So hair is one of those things, it's like a little valve, if you will.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: It can help us to release some heat or hold on to heat to still keep it within that optimal range without us burning up our own fuel.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: Because to keep warm costs energy.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you're feeding a fire to a fireplace.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna run out of wood eventually.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: We only have so much to use, so we gotta be able to do little tweaks on the thermostat without jerking it all up and down.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: So, like your grandpa, leave my thermostat alone.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: Quit touching it.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: So there was this photo that went viral on Instagram of a curly lion.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And not kidding, at least five people sent me that picture when it went viral, DM'd it to me, including Will, producer for this show, who immediately when he sent it to me, I was like, Oh my god, we gotta do an episode on curly animals.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is it.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that was a Photoshop at first.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: I really did, but no.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people I think were like, Is this the gonna be the question for the rest of our time now?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Is this AI or is it real?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: No, I agree, but no, he has the freshest Caesar cut.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: He's like fresh, baby.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's fresh, the layers.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: So it tells me he's very handsome and regal.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why might it be the case that some lions may evolve to have curly hair?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I think so.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: Here's the thing that hair, so that that gene was always there.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: So the gene was always there.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: And even with male lions, thinking of the traditional one where it's all poofy, if you look really closely, that hair is really thick, especially at the base.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it didn't come from scratch, if that makes sense.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: It just didn't.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: So it's already this nice thick bit of fur, especially if you get down to the base.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: So that's where a lot of regardless animals, if you go to the base of their bodies, you tend to have that softer fur.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: It tends a lot of animals have naturally finer hair, but early curly hair.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: Even if they have straight hair.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's the other thing.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: So that fur that's that's soft, downy, a lot of that is naturally curly too.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: So there's like hidden curls everywhere.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: So imagine that.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: I think the best way to think of that is you think of like those fine baby hairs.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: So you know how baby hairs in that kind of little wispy and curly.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: So that it's already in them.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't seen this curly lion, we'll put him in our newsletter for this episode.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: You can subscribe for free at WeArespiral.com.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: My question is going to be: if he's a successful male that gets a pride and has babies, will we see this trait pop up in the next generations?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: Now that is, I think in the next 10 to 15, next five to ten years, it's gonna be interesting to see if now if this trait begins to take over, then that can tell us something about how sexual selection might be playing on it.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I gotta say, we did an episode about how boys and even older men, even older men are getting perms.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because they get more dates.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Salon owners told me actually, this is the reason we hear the most from men.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: They find that they get more matches on dating apps and their dating life is improved.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe your theory holds.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: It might.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: So here's the thing: what does curly hair has the appearance of looking fuller?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: Fuller hair looks youthful.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: It makes, you know, so that makes them look more vibrant and virile.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: So it has all of that.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: But thermoregulatory, it is good for the body.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: So in cold climates, it keeps the body warm because it traps that layer of air, so it serves as an insulation.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: In warm environments, it does similarly.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: So it acts as that insulation layer.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: And curly hair is also, we see it come up in animals that get wet a lot.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: So, in other words, it has this water protection for thermoregulation because that's because the curly hair allows them to wick away faster.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: So when you see an animal shake, shake, get rid of that water, it actually releases it better from that curly hair so they can get back, they can get close to their body, can get back to that insulation.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: It can start and then trapping air to keep them warm.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Are there animals that have evolved to become more curly over time or the reverse that you've studied, right?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Either animals that started off with straighter hair and became more curly over time because they found, you know, there was some degree of evolutionary advantage, or the reverse.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: So we think that's what happened to a lot of the wild animals that have curly hair.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: So among the hooved animals, we see it in the ones that live in cold regions like up mountains.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, there's curly animals.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: So the hooved animals, I know that there's, let me get it right, different types of sheep, llamas, alpacas.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's curliness.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like we know that curly hair evolved in those places.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: Bison, the American bison, that's actually this beautiful, tightly curled, you know, tight wool.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of the sheep, even though a lot of sheep live, some sheep live in mountainous regions and others in warm regions near deserts, but it's still the similar philosophy.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I think of, and we compare sheep to goats, a lot of the goats have straight hair.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: There's a couple that don't.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_02: Sheep and I always tease us as sheep and goats, they're really like cousins, like really closely related.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: Goats are just mean sheep.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: Just a mean sheep.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: That's all they are.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: So the animals with curly hair are nicer, is what you're saying.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: I think so.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_02: If nothing else, we've, you know what among people we know that they're definitely the cute ones.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: Back to getting more dates.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: There's something cute about curls.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: Curls are cute.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: I would agree with that.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: Made a whole show about it.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm also starting a curly hair care product line because I'm deeply obsessed.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: So in researching for this, I came across there's now a curly hair pig.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: There is.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: How did that happen?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's a domesticated animal.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Danielle is referring to Hungarian Mangelitsa pigs.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: In the 1800s, a Serbian prince sent 10 sows and two boars to the Duke of Hungary to develop this new breed.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: Mangalitzas are rare.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: They have thick, sheep-like curly coats that protect them from harsh winters.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: So, what happens with a lot of domesticated animals is that the old breeds, no one was breeding for hair.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: They were breeding for other traits.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: And then hair came along on the ride.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what we see in a lot of domesticated animals is this other evolutionary pattern of pediamorphosis.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: So the word pedia, as in pediatrician, as in children.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: So in domesticating of animals, what we're usually focusing on is making an animal cuter.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: So the cuteness is an actually evolutionary process called pediamorphosis to make them more childlike, to make them cuter.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: And it usually results in things like making the face look a little flatter, it's so cuter, eyes bigger, and hair coat changes come along for the ride, not intentional.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: So think of domesticated animals like dogs, I assume.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: Dogs, horses.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: You know how a lot of them have that little star on the face or that white patch?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: It has a name called the pie ball.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: And they sometimes have a cute little, that little spiral, some people call it a dog lick, or you have that cute little hair pattern that goes in a circle, that spiral, and sometimes the hair becomes curly.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: That's sometimes an unintentional trait with artificial selection, pediamorphosis, is that the hair becomes curly.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: And that's because they're making them more juvenile-like, because juvenile mammals tend to have thick, curly hair, like the thicker down fur.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_02: Again, for thermal regulations, babies can't keep themselves warm very well, so they have these cute, fine but curly, wool-like hair close to their body.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: And that then that trait just takes off unintentionally.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: By trait by braiding it for one set of traits, these other traits come along on the ride.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Explain to me poodles versus other types of dogs.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not a huge dog expert.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: I've never had a pet.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm probably asking a really dumb question here.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Why are some dogs curly and some aren't?
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, there's a genetic factor, but outside of the genetic factor, their jobs.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: The poodle's job is to be cute.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: So actually curly actually, so poodles are originally water dogs.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: Oh.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: And again, I told you how curly hair was good for that.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: Poodles were originally water dogs, they were working guard dogs along the water.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_02: Poodles are water dogs.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: So they were protectors who like guarded the moat.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like that.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_02: So imagine, let's go back in time.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: But they're so cute.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's hard to imagine them doing that.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: Poodle came with their work.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: They were not to be trifled with.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: We are fierce.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: We are protectors.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: And then also look at think about that curly hair in that aggressive situation.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: You can't get at it.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: That nice thick hair also protects it when it's battling wildlife.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: Oh.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_02: They were working dogs.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: They were warrior dogs.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: So we are cute and warrior dogs.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: I actually love all these traits we're getting here.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so yeah, but that's why poodles are curly.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's because that's a hint to their evolutionary past.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: And that is, again, now that was artificial selection to make them really good around the water.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: That hair, that coiled hair.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: Because they can still stay warm in the water because you lose heat in the water.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: But then you can get out, wick it off, boom, and then you can get to keep your body temperature right.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Curly animals, do they have different grooming rituals from other types of animals?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like animals with straighter fur?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a good question.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: Now I'm trying to think.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_02: We look at grooming habits of like picking through a hand finger, what we would call finger combing.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: So like finger combing or picking through.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: You see that in some of the primates, in the more dexteritous animals, they have like handiness and fingerness.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: Rotents, I know, will like pick at things and all of that.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: But to be honest, I'm gonna be honest.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: I have not thought about it from the grooming point of view of curly, curly animals.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I was just curious.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: I agree.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's like what's your regimen?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what's their regimen?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: They must have different, a different regimen from straight-haired.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Are you pre-pooing?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Are you pre-pooing?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: Where's your bonnet?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: But the heast has it's always being made and it has to go somewhere.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just leaking out.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: Hair, if you have hair covered all over your body, it keeps your heat from it keeps you from losing heat.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: So that it's kind of like wearing a sweater, if you will.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: If the hair is straight, it's almost like a straight line, if you will, of that heat escaping.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_02: Heat can just roll off.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: When it's curly, it it so imagine like coils, instead of that heat going straight out into the sky, it's it's it circles back close to the skin.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: So the heat recirculates close to the body.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: And the reason it's recirculating is because it's a layer of air trapped, like this.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: Imagine this microscopic layer, like a little, just a little thin layer of air trapped close to the body.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: When hair is curly, it makes those layers nice and thick and stable.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: Straight hair is too many open spaces.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: And so for that, so the air can just escape.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: So it has still has a thin layer of air, but it's not staying close.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's not being patted down, if you will.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_02: Curly hair, like how you would like make your hair nice and then you would pat it down.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's exactly how the curly hair works to keep that heat close to your body.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's that layer.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: In warmer environments, it traps a cool layer of air.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's very paradoxical.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: Just like when they say wear long sleeves in the summertime, because it like the long thin layer, it helps trap that cool layer.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: And it's so it's that part is part of it.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: Not only is it thermoregulatory, but it's also protecting your skin.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's the other thing.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then for animals that live in moist environments, whether they're getting in the water or let's say it's like a rainforest.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: So think of the gorillas.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: So gorillas have curly hair.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: Many mountain gorillas have curly hair when they're babies, and as they grow up, it becomes straighter and straighter.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so it rains a lot up there.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: When you get wet, you can lose a lot of heat.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: That's fine if you're overheated.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_02: That's not fine when you can't maintain your body temperature very well, which is the case for most baby animals.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: Baby animals are horrible at maintaining their own body temperature.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: They lose heat so fast.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: What is your favorite curly animal?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: You know what?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: I think my favorite curly animal are the domesticated.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: What's the cute ones that make the Angora, the Angora sheep?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like, like, because they're so cute.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: They're so cute.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: They're domesticated, though.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I think those are my cute favorite.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I like those new poodles that look like dreadlocks.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I haven't seen those.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they are always in the like dog shows all the time.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: They look like like mopants, but they look like dreadlocks.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like locks.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: So yes.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: My dear listener, we will have 100% of these animals in the newsletter for you, I promise.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: They're also beautiful.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like you.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I asked Danielle, do animals see their hair change or their hormones like humans do?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: As they go through different life stages, puberty, pregnancy, menopause.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: No, so here's the other thing.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: Most mammals moat.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: Which means they intentionally lose their hair as they reach developmental ages.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: So there is a molt from youth to adult.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's the reason why the youth tend to have their soft downy fur and then they get their adult pillage.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: So we avoid it.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: We avoid molting.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: We use serums and brogaine to avoid that.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: Well, here's the thing: if we all molt it together, it wouldn't be a big deal.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Then everyone would be on a plane to Turkey.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay, you get your fresh seasonal cut.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: Got you.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: For pictures of curly animals, sign up for our free newsletter at wearspiraling.com.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast was produced by Citizens of Sound and hosted by Myura, my upcoming hair care line.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: The music by Love Gun.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to you again soon.