how does the molting mechanism work in the winter coats of animals? Like what triggers molting? Does it happen in a lab setting or if the climate isn’t correct?
In: Biology
I think it has something to do with the day and night cycle and when the days get shorter or longer. Basically every animal produces a specific hormone when exposed to sunlight. If there is a lot of sunlight there is a lot of hormones. When the days get shorter they produces less of the hormone and if the hormone lvl falls below a certain treshold the animal switches “modes” until it gets more sunlight where it produces then more of the hormone again
I used to have a Siberian Husky and an Alaskan Malamute. Both breeds moult. Twice a year. In one piece.
So basically, each hair grows for about 6 months. The the hair falls out. The growth is staggered, though, so the dog is never bald. They do change colors, though.
To answer the question about lab setting and climate, we live in southern California. They still moulted twice each year. In one piece.
I keep mentioning ‘in one piece’. I should clear that up. Over a two or three week period in late spring and late fall, their over coat of fur would simply fall out in clumps. We’d use a brush, but the brush would clog after two strokes.
They used to run up and down the length of the chain link fence in the back yard rubbing the moulted fur off. It was kind of funny, but kind of a pain because we’d have to clean up big clumps of fur.
These were strictly outdoor dogs because of this.
Do a Google image search for “malamute shedding” to see what I’m talking about. Most of the images show a pile of shedd fur. Many would think this was after grooming the dog with clippers. For dogs which moult, this is incorrect. The hair comes off all at once, together.
The length of the day really triggers so much in the animal kingdom, because the length of the day doesn’t change every year whereas temperatures fluctuate, not to mention global warming. (Not saying that daylight/day-night cycle is the only factor here though!)
Idk what would happen if you were to keep an animal from ever experiencing daylight, but it would probably not like it. Maybe it won’t ever molt? Maybe it will molt randomly? Someone else ought to know more about this than me.
Is it known specifically what gene is turned on and off by the light cycle, and if any such gene exists in humans?
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