5 hairless animals that are—surprise!—Canadian

Like all cetaceans, whales, including B.C.’s orcas, have evolved to be nearly hairless. Underwater, having a lot of blubber is a far more useful adaptation to keep warm. All cetaceans have hair on their heads as fetuses, but they eventually go bald. Sorry, guys! There’s no Rogaine for whales.

Like whales and porpoises, dolphins, including our inquisitive, acrobatic white-sided dolphin, rely on their fat stores for warmth. Strangely, baby dolphins have whiskers in utero, but not once they’re born.

Okay, so walruses, including the East Coast’s Atlantic walrus, have a little bit of fur—a very short, cinnamon-coloured coat. But it’s barely visible and it doesn’t do much for the semi-aquatic species; subcutaneous fat provides all the insulation that it needs. The face is the hairiest part of a walrus’s body. Like a seal, this mammal uses those bushy whiskers to detect vibrations in the water as it hunts for prey.

That’s right: Dr. Evil’s pet kitty (Mr. Bigglesworth!) has Canadian roots. The first modern Sphynx cat was born in Toronto in 1966 to a furred mother. The kitten’s nakedness was caused by a naturally-occurring genetic mutation.

Obviously, birds don’t have hair. They have feathers. But the turkey vulture has no feathers on its head (unlike the bald eagle, which isn’t bald at all). For a long time, scientists believed that vultures had naked heads because any feathers would get dirty when the scavengers were head-first in an animal carcass, feeding on the remains. (And dirty head feathers are hard to clean by preening.) But more recent research suggests that it’s to help with thermoregulation. This theory also makes sense: a featherless head helps the bird keep cool when it’s hot.