The ‘lovely furry pelt’ is not always soft and snuggly; think of the difference between an angora rabbit and a shar-pei or ‘sand-skin’ with its short, rough, scratchy coat. The tanned skin side might end up being chamois-like and more comfy than the hair side.
To me, it always seemed like you’d want the fur on the outside, like the animal has it. Why would you have it the other way around? I would think the tanned skin side on the inside would feel warmer than the other way around, though I’m not sure where that intuition comes from. When I sleep, I usually have the fluffy comfirter as the topmost later and the thinner, but denser blanket against my body.
It seems to me that leopard is not the best fur for warmth, and areas leopards are found in the inhabitants rarely need warm clothes. (Unless we’re talking snow leopards). More likely, the pelt pattern is displayed to say “the person who owns/provided this pelt is a mighty hunter who defeated on of the higher predators”. I.e. it’s for show and status.
If you think about it, though, the animal is literally wearing the fur next to its skin. That’s different from wearing the animal’s tanned skin next to your skin, even though it looks more or less the same to an observer seeing the fur on the outside surface of either you or the animal.
Not next, it is the skin. Unless you consider that brown thing to which your various hairs are attached not-your-skin, I mean.
Because, with the right kind of fur, it traps more air and keeps you warmer. If there was an easy evolutionary path to a sustainable “skin outside the fur” solution for Arctic animals, they would have their fur inside the skin as well.
Having stroked a lion cub, and felt a number of animal pelts (from african animals), I suspect there’s also the reason that the fur is anything but soft and comfortable, some are downright wire like.
Don’t forget that we’re not talking about modern times, here. The hairy side was probably full of bugs.
It rubs the lotion on its skin. It does this whenever it’s told.
I read the OP and thought about how you would use a fur blanket.
Since the fur “works” because it captures air between follicles and the trapped air forms insulation barriers it seems to me that you wouldn’t want to compress those barriers.
Using the blanket fur side down would add the weight of the hide over those barriers.
That weight would compress the fur.
Fur side up would maintain larger barrier areas.
Think of the situation like some of the older attic insulation methods (fiber fill) which lose R value due to the gradual settling of the fill.
The fur is not homogeneous; there is an undercoat of soft, warm, non-pointy down hair, and an outer layer of wire-like guard hairs on the top, with a possible additional layer in between.
Fur clothing is, of course, chemically treated, which can affect it in various ways.
This is true, but you also have to think of the fact that an important part of insulation is preventing air flow.
Using a fur blanket fur side down would compress the barriers, but it would also completely stop convection of hot air up and away.
Whether these two factors cancel out or tip the scale in either direction depends on the conditions you are using the furs in and what kind of furs they are.
I think the scale is tipped heavily to fur side out since, well that’s the way evolution created it.
Yes, and planes should have flapping wings and propellers are dumb.
The solutions we can make with technology, and using another animals skin is a form of technology, can sometimes be inspired by nature and evolution, and sometimes surpass it. Animals not having air bubbles in their skin isn’t a consequence of fur being better as an insulator, it’s about the probability of such an approach evolving and how well it would work in practice.
Fur for instance also protects the animals skin from external damage. It’s easy to shed hairs in spring and add hairs in fall for varying insulation requirements.
For some furs and in some conditions it might be better to wear the hairs out, in others it’s vise versa, and “that’s the way evolution did it” is not a good argument.
Propellers aren’t dumb. Just ask some of your local maple seeds.
I was hoping that reading up on how the Inuits used fur would help us clear up our little disagreement.
I found that in some cultures the natives would wear fur apparel with the fur in during the spring and summer. and then add a separate layer fur out during cold months.
Not much help there as there seems to be some comfort preferences involved as well as insulation.
Some tribes wore fur out for leg apparel, but that can be a factor of movement range more than insulation. Hide can stiffen or freeze up in extreme cold so keeping the hide flexible might take precedence over insulation.
I had a pair of rabbit fur gloves that were lined in that were the warmest gloves I owned, but didn’tt have a pair with fur out to compare.
Results: I didn’t get enough evidence to win or lose my position.
And very similarly, an old Mother Goose rhyme: