Furry Animals: 10 Fluffy Animals You'll Surely Love

Ever feel like you just need a big fluffy hug? You are not the only one. When life gets loud and stressful, soft and adorable animals can be a fast mood reset.

This list covers 10 of the fluffiest animals, from a wild cat built for cold mountains to a newly hatched duckling. Each one comes with a fact about its coat from a zoo, a wildlife agency, a university, or a breed registry.

Some are pets, some are wild animals, and one is livestock raised for its fleece. They all have one thing in common: they make hard days feel a little lighter.

Introducing The World's Fluffiest Animals

When we think of super furry animals, the first things that probably come to most people's minds are fluffy cats and dogs, but they aren't the only fluffy animals in the world. There are so many others! Our guide to pet weasels covers one more small furry animal.

It is easy to say we can't resist cuteness. In a brain imaging study of adults who were not parents, areas that the authors link to attachment and caregiving responded more to human infant faces than to the faces of young animals. Who doesn't love to sink their hands into soft fur on a real, living animal?

Which animal is the fluffiest in the world? The densest fur belongs to the sea otter, which is not on this list. The Monterey Bay Aquarium says sea otters have the world's densest fur, made up of more than a million hairs per square inch at its thickest. An otter spends many hours a day grooming, and the grooming coats the fur with natural oils from its skin and fluffs it up with insulating air bubbles. The ten animals below are fluffy in other ways: long, thick, woolly, or downy.

Pallas's Cat

Manul is another name for the Pallas's cat. The Cincinnati Zoo describes a predator about the size of a housecat that is specialized to live in the mountainous regions of central Asia. Britannica calls it a small, long-haired, soft-furred cat that lives in deserts and rocky, mountainous regions from Tibet to Siberia, and gives its weight as 2.5 to 3.5 kilograms (5.5 to 7.7 pounds).

The zoo says its pale grey coat lets it blend in with the surrounding rocks, and that a flat forehead and low ears let it peek over bushes and rocks without exposing much of itself. Just look at that coat. It looks cuddlier than a plush toy.

Red Panda

The red panda lives in high-altitude forests of the Himalayas and other high mountains. The Smithsonian's National Zoo gives its range as northern Myanmar to the west Sichuan and Yunnan provinces of China, with some in Nepal, India, and Tibet. Adults typically weigh 8 to 17 pounds.

The zoo describes a soft, dense woolly undercoat covered by long, coarse guard hairs, with dense fur that completely covers the feet. The face is white with reddish-brown "tear" marks, and the tail has alternating red and buff rings. That long, bushy tail helps a red panda keep its balance and protects it from harsh cold and winds. In significantly cold temperatures a red panda can become dormant, and it curls into a tight ball to conserve body heat.

The zoo also notes semi-retractable claws and, compared with other carnivores of its size, extremely robust teeth. Red pandas look huggable, and they are wild animals.

Arctic Fox

Look at that fluffy white coat! The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says fully grown Arctic foxes weigh 6 to 10 pounds, and that their short legs and body, short ears, and dense winter fur give them a stocky appearance next to their slightly larger relative, the red fox.

The coat changes with the season. White foxes begin to shed their long winter fur in early April. By late June the face, legs, and upper parts of the body are covered in short brown summer fur, and the change back to winter fur happens in September and October. By November the white winter coat is complete. Some Arctic foxes stay dark or charcoal colored all year, and the department calls them the blue phase.

If you love fluffy creatures, check out our list of animals with the softest fur in the world.

English Angora Rabbit

Cotton balls? No, it's a fluffy domestic rabbit!

The American Rabbit Breeders Association recognizes four breeds of Angora. It lists the English as the only Angora classified as a compact breed, with a maximum weight of 7.5 pounds, and describes its silky, luxurious wool as sought after for spinning.

Pomeranian

The AKC says the Pomeranian is a miniaturized relation of the powerful spitz-type sled dogs of the Arctic. The breed is named for Pomerania, the area of northeastern Europe that is now part of Poland and western Germany.

It combines a tiny body, no more than seven pounds, with an abundant double coat. A frill extends over the chest and shoulders, and the coat comes in almost two dozen colors, most commonly orange or red. The AKC describes a smiling, foxy face and a vivacious personality, and says the coat needs frequent brushing: a pin brush and a slicker brush down to the skin once a week keeps the hair from matting.

Alpaca

Alpacas resemble llamas and are frequently mistaken for one. The Alpaca Owners Association (AOA) says on its About Alpacas page that alpacas weigh 120 to 200 pounds, and llamas are about twice their size. The two creatures can effectively crossbreed since they are closely related.

The AOA also says a llama is a domesticated guanaco and an alpaca is a domesticated vicuna. Alpacas come in two breed types, huacaya and suri, which differ mainly in their fiber, and huacaya is the more common type.

Alpacas are raised for their fleece. Each shearing produces roughly five to ten pounds of fleece per animal per year, and the AOA says the fleece is often compared to cashmere. Unlike sheep's wool, it contains no lanolin.

Snow Leopard

The Snow Leopard Trust says the snow leopard has soft, dense fur that grows extra-thick during the winter to keep its body warm. Its tail is about 40 inches (100 centimeters) long. The tail helps the cat keep its balance and provides extra warmth when it is wrapped around the body.

The cat's extra large paws work like natural snow shoes, and its strong hind limbs help launch it up to 30 feet (10 meters) in one leap.

Chinchilla

Chinchillas have fur that the University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Web calls extremely dense and soft. On the long-tailed chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera), as many as 60 hairs grow out of one follicle, and each hair usually has a black tip.

The same page says wild chinchillas of this species live in the barren, arid mountains of northern Chile, at elevations of 3,000 to 5,000 meters.

Black and White Ruffed Lemur

The Duke Lemur Center says the black and white ruffed lemur comes from the tropical forests of eastern Madagascar, where its thick fur is well suited to the wet, sometimes chilly rainforest canopy. It weighs up to nine pounds (4.1 kilograms), which makes it one of the largest living lemurs.

Pollen sticks to the ruffs of fur around its face as it feeds and gets carried from tree to tree. Duke calls these lemurs the largest pollinators in the world. The center lists the species as critically endangered in Madagascar because of hunting, habitat loss, and fragmentation.

Baby Duck

What's small, cute, and fluffy? A baby duck! The Cornell Lab of Ornithology says newly hatched mallards are covered in down and alert, and ready to leave the nest within 13 to 16 hours. It adds that a mother mallard plucks down feathers from her breast to line the nest and cover her eggs.

Which of these small, furry critters is your favorite? What other fluffy animals do you think we should include in this list? Comment down below!

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Fluffy And Furry Animals FAQ

Why are animals furry?

Fur serves several purposes for animals. It helps keep them warm by trapping body heat close to the skin. The thicker and fuller the coat, the better insulated the animal is. Fur also provides protection from the elements like wind, rain, and snow. The Monterey Bay Aquarium says sea otters coat their fur with oils from their skin, and that grooming also fluffs the fur up with insulating air bubbles.

Can animal fur cause allergies?

Dander, saliva, and urine can trigger allergic reactions. The American Lung Association says pet dander, which comes from skin cells shed by animals with fur or feathers, is the most common source of a pet allergy, and that people can also be allergic to proteins in pet saliva, urine, and feces.

The association adds that animals without fur, like reptiles, amphibians, and fish, do not shed dander, so they have less of a chance of triggering an allergic reaction. Dander and other pet allergens can linger in the air and stick to furniture, bedding, and fabrics.

Do furry animals get cold?

Fur helps, and the animals above show how far the adaptations go. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game describes the Arctic fox's long white winter coat, and the Snow Leopard Trust says a snow leopard wraps its tail around its body for extra warmth. The National Zoo says a red panda curls into a tight ball to conserve body heat in cold weather.

Sources

• Monterey Bay Aquarium, Sea otter
• Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Pallas's cat
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Pallas's cat
• Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Red panda
• Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Arctic fox
• American Rabbit Breeders Association, English Angora
• American Kennel Club, Pomeranian
• AOA, About Alpacas
• AOA, Alpaca Fiber (Fleece)
• Snow Leopard Trust, Snow leopard physical features
• University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Animal Diversity Web, Chinchilla lanigera
• Duke Lemur Center, Black and white ruffed lemur
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Mallard life history
• Caria et al., Species-specific response to human infant faces in the premotor cortex, NeuroImage, 2012
• American Lung Association, Pet Dander