I sit here surrounded by the scent of drying Bactine, as a result of just a few seconds ‘play’ with one of my cats.
I’m sure every owner of more than one cat is well aware that these dainty little pussy cats cheerfully wrestle and rake at each other with the same way-too-sharp claws, with no apparent damage or lingering pain as the result. And I don’t really think El Gato was trying to lacerate me – she just used her claws during a mock battle the same way she’d wield them against the other furred one. But I end up with bloody streaks.
Why is human skin so fragile? Is it purely because we don’t have a layer of fur that mechanically prevents the claws from actually contacting the skin? Or is their skin just made stronger? Thicker, tougher, more elastic, something?
Funny, I think of human skin as being fairly durable. We may get scratched up all the time, but I have never had an actual avulsion and don’t recall hearing of a friend or acquaintance getting one.
Fur probably would help protect us from claws and teeth but humans may have lost it in favor of being able to sweat efficiently from all of our body, which can give us an advantage for persistence hunting.
I cannot definitively say as I do not own a cat or deal with cats.
But try this experiment, next time the cat is clawing like that, lower your head and let the cat paw at your noggin.
As a bald man, I can assure you the skin on my head is just as tinder as the skin on my arms, so if you end up with no scratches, then you have an answer, if you do get scratches, then you will have your answer.
My understanding is that humans’ early survival depended on their being able to run down their prey over long distances/durations, and a big part of that is being able to wick away internal heat during those intervals. I suspect that hick skin would have gotten in the way of that heat dissipation.
So the next time you get scratched by your cat, run it down.
I don’t know the answer to the question, but when my dog had a patch of fur shaved-off at the vet for something, his skin under all that dense fur was quite soft and supple. Under his armpits is also very soft. That kinda-sorta validates your statement regarding the fur as a mechanical protective layer.
Having had to treat various injuries my pets did to each other, including one gerbil that died of an infected bite from another gerbil and a couple skin infections in cats, they certainly can hurt each other. Animals don’t always “complain” about injuries the way humans do.
You don’t really need a knife to skin most small game, although it might help. You can use your bare hands to do most of the work. From less intentional injury, yes I think the fur protects some.
Um, haired skin is actually thinner than nonhaired skin. Our (human) skin is thicker overall than a lot of animal species’ skin.
It is possible the fur does deflect some of the damages, or that the cat actually missed or maybe wasn’t as serious as scratching the other cat as you thought.
As a longtime cat owner I would contend that a cat playing does not extend claws or is not as diligent in the claw attack as one in combat. So I think that premise is wrong. But I do agree that fur will provide a mechanical benefit.
I’m with the crowd that suspects that fur provides a certain protection against incidental scratches like cat claws. Makes sense- that sort of protection would also be useful against stuff like little sticks, burrs, thorns, etc…
Or… it could be that it just obscures our vision into the little incidental scratches that animals get. I mean, I’ve had those little scratches that look terrible as they heal because they’re red and angry looking (on a white person anyway), but don’t bleed much, and aren’t deep at all.
How would you even know if a cat or dog had some of the same kinds of scratches under their fur?
When my cats really go at it, there’s blood on the floor. I’m pretty sure they scratch each other a lot when they play rough. It’s not as if I bleed much when they scratch me.
The five layers of human skin, the biggest organ, is surprisingly durable given what it does. It needs to be elastic to allow for growth and weight change, allow heat transfer, reduce dehydration, help fight off infection, help detect the position of your body (propioception), yada yada. With minimal weight.
Protection from a claw is not its primary thing, but even so most wounds would be non-fatal and heal within a few weeks. Cat bites are well known for Pasteurella infection but fight bites and animal claws can cause infection which could occur despite fur and is probably more dangerous than most original physical wounds unless the animal is large, in which case more fur might not help.
As someone who switches randomly between a hirsuite and a shaven head, and who also works beneath his Jeep quite a bit, I can tell you that hair adds a lot of protection against random bumps and scratches.
