Primates and humans have a large number of similarities, some of which are related to hair. Primates, like other mammals, are not immune to suffering from alopecia as they also have the gene that produces it.
Did you know that primates also have the baldness gene?
It is a natural process whose causes are the same as in humans. From birth we have defined how our hair will grow, and our hair follicles have a maximum number of cycles. When these are exhausted, they stop producing hair.
Alopecia in primates is also related to androgens and certain genetic characteristics. That is to say, some specimens are more prone to suffer from it than others. When and to what degree it will occur can vary greatly among specimens.
Chimpanzees and orangutans, for example, become totally bald in adulthood. Alopecia is especially curious in the South American cacajaos (also known as guacari), which have a hairy body but a completely bald head.
Hair loss in primates, as in humans, is a slow process in which age also plays an important role, since the passage of time depletes the follicle cycle. Once this cycle is exhausted, the situation is irreversible.
As for the parts most affected, baldness in primates is mainly located in the frontal part. This is something that also happens to people, which shows that there are real similarities between one and the other in hair matters.
And there are even more similarities. In addition to strictly genetic causes, there are temporary elements that can precipitate and accelerate the process of hair loss. One of them is stress.
Primates also suffer from stress and its consequences, something that is common in captive animals. In these cases, the environmental conditions in which they find themselves play a very important role.
Another cause that tends to affect them, just as it does people, is food. Drought periods lead to an impoverished balance in the diet, causing a shortage of certain nutrients necessary for the capillary health.
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