Seals in Mexico are losing fur and climate change may be to blame

Some fur seals within the Pacific Ocean are dropping their fur, and dietary adjustments introduced on by local weather change could also be accountable.

Alopecia, a situation that entails the lack of hair, can massively have an effect on the flexibility of those animals to maintain heat, says Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse on the University of Queretaro in Mexico. “Fur seals rely heavily on their double layer of fur in order to achieve adequate thermal insulation,” she says.

She and her colleagues collected fur …