Why do the Huskies, which are good at wrecking houses and not very smart, feel so unfamiliar when they arrive in Harbin?

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A series of "unexpected" operations made the little potatoes from the south feel the hospitality of Harbin.

But it also made many locals exclaim: Erbin, you make me feel strange!

Soon, "xx, you make me feel strange" quickly became a popular hot topic on the Internet, but what we are going to talk about today is not Harbin, but the Huskies brought to Harbin by southerners .

In the north, with temperatures as low as 20 to 30 degrees below zero, the Huskies from the south seem to have their blood awakened. They gallop freely in the snow without fear of the severe cold, and can fall asleep calmly even with a "snow blanket" on their bodies.

Image source: TikTok

Even the originally "intelligent" eyes have become cold, which is completely different from the "Husky" we are familiar with.

Image source: TikTok

But in fact, this is what Huskies really look like.

Image source: Zakharov Evgeniy

Husky is classified as Siberian Husky in terms of dog breed, and is named after the transliteration of " husky ".

The Siberian Husky is a primitive working dog that originated in northern Siberia. In the Neolithic Age, the Chukchi people living in northern Siberia made a living by hunting, including reindeer, seals, walruses, bears, whales and other animals, but they soon faced an embarrassing situation: how to transport the captured prey back home?

Explore Siberian Husky together. Photo credit: Vladimir Jochelson/Dina Brodskava

The Chukchi people at that time were in urgent need of a helper to pull goods, so they selected and bred dog breeds living in Siberia . After thousands of years of development, they finally bred the Chukchi dog, which is the ancestor of the Siberian Husky, which is cold-resistant , has strong endurance, a gentle temperament, and strong adaptability.

In this way, the Chukchi became the exclusive means of transportation for tribes in the Siberian region. A group of Chukchi dogs harnessed to a sled was very useful whether for pulling goods or carrying people.

Chukchi people feeding Chukchi dogs (Source: Wikipedia)

In the early twentieth century , Russian fur trader William Gussack introduced Siberian Huskies to Alaska during the Nome Gold Rush in Alaska. They were used to transport goods in mines and explore terrain that humans could not penetrate. In addition, when a diphtheria epidemic broke out in the town of Nome in 1925, Siberian Huskies were also responsible for transporting serum .

When talking about Alaska, we have to mention the local Alaskan sled dog, which is also used for transportation. It is also an ancient working dog and has a genetic relationship with the Siberian Husky. After all, the two dogs are separated by only the Bering Strait.

Alaskan Malamute Photo credit: Zack Newman

However, compared to the Alaskan Husky, the Siberian Husky is smaller in size and is a medium-sized dog. In terms of personality, the Siberian Husky is more neurotic , more enthusiastic towards humans, curious, and has pure blood.

Friends who have raised Huskies must have had this experience: when you go out in the morning, your house is still fine, but when you come back, you find that the house has become " battle-damaged ".

What’s even more infuriating is that the perpetrator will brazenly wait for you at the “crime scene” .

Take a break after dismantling. Image source: Internet

That’s right, in addition to looking “not very smart”, another characteristic of Huskies is that they are “destroyers”, but this is not their fault.

As a sled dog, Huskies are very active by nature . The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) evaluates Huskies as an active and energetic breed that shows a strong need for exercise indoors. If this need is not met in a timely manner, it may cause a certain degree of damage.

This home cannot be kept. Image source: Internet

The Chukchi people, who are well aware of this, let their sled dogs pull the sled outside for at least two hours every day to release their energy that has nowhere to go. This is why friends who raise Huskies need to take them out for a walk every day.

Siberian Husky participating in sled races. Image source: Lomen Bros

However, releasing energy is one thing. Another reason why sled dogs keep exercising is to keep warm . The high metabolism generated by exercise allows sled dogs to burn a lot of calories and generate body heat, thus having extremely strong cold resistance.

In addition, compared with most dog breeds, sled dogs have a special fur structure and are thicker, just like wearing a "fur coat". Their fur has two layers, the outer layer is a layer of longer, thicker and upright guard hair, which can protect the skin from the sun's ultraviolet radiation, and the inner layer is a layer of fine and soft undercoat, which can warm the body and slow down heat loss.

Image source: pexels

Through these strategies, sled dogs can even withstand low temperatures of minus 50 to 60 degrees Celsius . Using hair to keep warm is also the mainstream choice for many animals living in cold environments.

For animals living on land, the feeling of cold is mainly because the cold air in the environment will take away body heat and cause hypothermia. However, in addition to cold air, animals also have to adapt to water bodies close to zero degrees or even below zero .

At the Earth's North and South Poles, there are not only vast ice fields, but they are also surrounded by cold sea water. Animals living in the water are more sensitive to heat than animals on land.

Weddell seals and snow petrels living in the polar regions. Image source: coolantarctica

When water is still, its thermal conductivity is 25 times higher than that of air. As water flows, its thermal conductivity is 50 to 100 times higher than that of air, so heat dissipates faster in water than in air .

For this reason, animals living in cold seawater, especially some warm-blooded animals, have special means to stay warm in the water. For example, sea otters have denser hair, which can play a role in waterproofing and heat preservation , while animals such as seals, walruses, and whales can rely on thick fat to maintain their core temperature.

Weddell seal in the water. Image source: pexels

As for penguins and other wading birds, they have a countercurrent heat exchange system in their bodies, which is an ingenious design in nature. Two fluids flow in opposite directions and exchange heat at the same time, of course, they can also exchange other properties, such as the concentration of chemicals.

This is the pink flipper of the chinstrap penguin, which is due to the transfer of blood here. Image source: reddit

Specifically, the arteries that supply the feet of birds are adjacent to the veins. The blood in the arteries flows from the heart to the feet, while the blood in the veins returns to the heart from the feet. When these two blood streams meet, the heat is transferred from the hotter arterial blood to the colder venous blood due to the higher temperature in the arterial blood.

Although the arterial blood will gradually cool down on its way to the feet, it is still warmer than the venous blood next door. The arterial blood that reaches the feet is warm enough, and the venous blood that absorbs the heat of the arterial blood is not icy cold when it returns, thus maintaining the core temperature and preventing other parts of the body from being frozen.

Countercurrent heat exchange in bird feet. Image credit: Gill, Frank B. 1995. Ornithology. Second Edition. WH Freeman and Company, NY.

This is why penguins and other wading birds can walk barefoot in the water without freezing.

References:

1.A brief history of the Siberian Husky

https://siberianhuskywelfare.co.uk/siberian-husky-history/

2. Siberian Husky

https://www.britannica.com/animal/Siberian-husky

3. countercurrent heat exchange. Oxford Reference. Retrieved 12 Jan. 2024, from https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095642936.

4.How Animals Survive in Cold Conditions Science of the Cold

https://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/science/cold_all_animals.php

5. Sinding MS, Gopalakrishnan S, Ramos-Madrigal J, de Manuel M, Pitulko VV, Kuderna L, Feuerborn TR, Frantz LAF, Vieira FG, Niemann J, Samaniego Castruita JA, Carøe C, Andersen-Ranberg EU, Jordan PD, Pavlova EY, Nikolskiy PA, Kasparov AK, Ivanova VV, Willerslev E, Skoglund P, Fredholm M, Wennerberg SE, Heide-Jørgensen MP, Dietz R, Sonne C, Meldgaard M, Dalén L, Larson G, Petersen B, Sicheritz-Pontén T, Bachmann L, Wiig Ø, Marques-Bonet T, Hansen AJ, Gilbert MTP. Arctic-adapted dogs emerged at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Science. 2020 Jun 26;368(6498):1495-1499. doi: 10.1126/science.aaz8599. PMID: 32587022; PMCID: PMC7116267.

Author: Fish

Winner of the Silver Award for Outstanding Science Popularization Works of China Science Writers Association

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