# Do animals other than people get suntans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 29, 2008, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-other-than-people-get-suntans/458072 "2008-07-29T13:03:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-other-than-people-get-suntans/458072/1 "2008-07-29T13:03:38Z")
I’ve never seen a tan pig, and other mammals have so much hair you couldn’t tell. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-other-than-people-get-suntans/458072/2 "2008-07-29T13:07:27Z")
Pigs burn easily in the sun, which is one reason they wallow in mud. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-other-than-people-get-suntans/458072/3 "2008-07-29T13:09:40Z")
Yeah, I once knew a white whippet (named Elmo) who had fairly thin fur and he turned pink and red with too much sun. Kinda pitiful, really. ---
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-other-than-people-get-suntans/458072/4 "2008-07-29T13:10:21Z")
I know that horses, and other animals with a thin layer of hair in the summer will get sunburnt. Dogs and other animals will get burnt on their noses, bellies, or ears, especially if lighter colored. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-other-than-people-get-suntans/458072/5 "2008-07-29T13:11:58Z")
My dog’s nose is pink in the winter and pitch black in the summer. I assume it has to do with the amount of sun she gets… ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-other-than-people-get-suntans/458072/6 "2008-07-29T13:27:52Z")
Dogs can get a condition called “snow nose”: Technically called “hypopigmentation” (or snow nose, winter nose) it results from loss of sunlight, and causes the nose to fade to brown in winter; normal color returns as summer approaches. Snow nose occurs mainly in light-coated breeds; the color change can become permanent in older dogs. It is not associated with disease. My one corgi gets it, the other doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-other-than-people-get-suntans/458072/7 "2008-07-29T14:09:58Z")
Interesting posts. I am not surprised to hear that animals can get sunburn, which is simply a radiation burn and would probably affect any mammal with exposed skin. But still haven’t heard about any that get a _tan_. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-other-than-people-get-suntans/458072/8 "2008-07-29T14:24:46Z")
Implied in the information that certain animals can burn is the information that this means they don’t tan. If they could tan, they wouldn’t burn. Pigs, especially. Other mammals like horses and dogs have heavy growth of body hairs that protect the skin from excess UV radiation, except for pigs, which evolved in a heavily shaded jungle/forest. _Homo sapiens_ evolved away from heavy body hair, and thus melanocytes stepped up to fill the void. So if you want to find animal species that tan, look for species that evolved in full sun, like on a grassland, but have skimpy body hairs. Just off the top of my head, _homo sapiens_ is the only one. ---
**Author:** ![Iggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Iggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggins)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-other-than-people-get-suntans/458072/9 "2008-07-29T16:50:46Z")
My greyhound’s nearly hairless belly gets very dark in the summer from laying out in the yard. I’ve considered sunscreen, but I only let her lay out for 15-20 minutes a day when it’s very sunny. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-other-than-people-get-suntans/458072/10 "2008-07-29T17:51:13Z")
[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose] Just off the top of my head, _homo sapiens_ is the only one. [/QUOTE] That’s cause we were the only ones dumb enough to leave the shade to go into the sun! 😛 Hell, sea mammals have it the best! I’m pretty sure dolphins are the smartest beings on the planet. They just swim all day long, eat some fish if they’re hungry, and then go have hot dolphin sex. Living the dream, man, living the dream. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-other-than-people-get-suntans/458072/11 "2008-07-29T18:01:53Z")
[QUOTE=bouv] They just swim all day long, eat some fish if they’re hungry, and then go have hot dolphin sex. [/QUOTE] And sometimes not-dolphin sex, if certain internet rumors are true. ---
**Author:** ![RedSwinglineOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-other-than-people-get-suntans/458072/12 "2008-07-29T20:06:14Z")
According to a show I saw on sharks, they can tan. At least the baby ones which stick to shallow waters can. [I also found this.](http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/topics/b_dorsal_out.htm) > [@](#): > > An American shark biologist named Chris Lowe and his wife, Gwen Goodman-Lowe, discovered recently that at least some sharks — like people — actually sun-tan. A part of the sun’s light called ‘ultraviolet radiation’ can actually penetrate the water up to a distance of about a metre (three feet) with enough energy that it can cause skin damage to a human or shark; in response, the skin produces a dark pigment called melanin. Chris and Gwen demonstrated that young Scalloped Hammerheads (Sphyrna lewini) held in shallow-water outdoor pools actually tan in a few days. When Chris and Gwen covered part of the little hammerheads’ skin with an opaque (non-see-through) patch, the only part of the shark that did not tan was that under the patch! I have seen a similar phenomenon with Nurse Sharks (Ginglymostoma cirratum) in the Florida Keys: when the sharks first move into shallow water in preparation for mating, they are a reddish or tan color; but after a few days, many of them have become a rich chocolate brown.