What is the difference between fur,feather and hide?

Question

What is the difference between fur,feather and hide?

Answer 1

The real difference lies in the capacity to hold heat in, or out, and as a secondary consideration, give camouflage, or for display purposes, during mating...

Fur wins as a heat trap/insulation, a polar bear has white fur because it radiates less heat than black does, and reflects more as well. it is actually a secondary benefit that it helps camouflage it, a polar bear is actually black beneath this fur.

Feather as a display form, the male peacock is a perfect example of this , the female pea hen is a very dowdy bird by comparison to almost every other female of any bird species...

Hide for protection, against sharp plants or bites...all primary purposes, but each with a secondary purpose, the Rhino is a good example, its hide can actually prevent bullets reaching its vital organs, and being grey is a good form of heat reflector...

Answer 2

Mammals have fur (hair).

Birds have feathers

Hide is skin, whether it has feather or hair or scales is unimportant.

Answer 3

In terms of fashion, then fur is soft and silky hair, feathers are floaty and decorative, hide is your jacket or boots - durable skin....

In terms of the animals kingdom? - Fur is not one layer but at least three layers of short thick hair on an animal's body - it is a thermoprotector - holding and maintaining body heat, especially in cold temperatures and deflecting external heat in warm/hot temperatures (hence animals shed fur in hot weather - a means of helping to reduce and maintain a regular body temperature....

.... Feathers are a bird's 'fur' - similarly layered - but made in such a way that they are light in weight and so weigh less on the body of the bird enabling it to fly - the spine of a feather is hollow and the hairs of a feather are set along side each side of the spine so as to fan out over the length of the spine, the layers of feathers, especially on the wings, help the bird 'catch' an air current and flap up into the sky..... Hide such as rhinocerus, elephant, hippo, is made thick to give the animal heat and cold protection in a similar way as fur but with the added advantage of also being waterproof  - this enables the animal to cross extreme  terrains that are hot, cold, wet, dry, forested or bushland.... it has nothing that will tangle up or get caught up by - whether on forested or bush land, or reed thick waters.....

The markings and colourings of both fur, feathers and hide are dictated by the environment in which the animal lives for protection (mainly) and for attracting the opposite s*x .... elephants, rhinos and hippos are large animals so their hide acts like a 'canvas' on which shadows and light fall so that they blend into their backgrounds - not having teeth and claws or speed on their side, this is their main protection .... tigers, leopards, lions, cheetahs - their markings are permanent but do the same job as the elephants' hide - when they sit or lie in their environments their markings make them 'disappear' into their backgrounds - particularly useful in not tipping off their presence to their next meal!  Birds' colouring and marking of feathers does a similar 'disappearing' act for the bird - suited to their environment off the ground .... however their plumage also allows the males to be able to 'perform' for the attention of the females - the better the plumage the more females - it would seem their markings and colourings would indicate to the females that this bird is a good provider - their genes are worth having!.....

So you see all three animal types have a lot in common - camouflage, heat/cold protection, environment protection and attraction to the opposite s*x .....

God must have been mad when he made us humans - we've got nothing going on like the animal kingdome!...

:)