Red Squirrel Fur

The Red Squirrels fur is soft,

like very, very soft.

The closest resemble is kitten fur, or chinchilla fur.

The tail is a little bit more coarse, or more stiff than the rest of the fur,

giving it that distinctively big and fluffy look.

The red squirrels fur changes with the seasons.

As it gets colder, the fur will start to get more grey,

eventually turning pure white.

This highly depends on where they are located in the world,

in these photos, it's the rough Siberian winter in Russia.

In Denmark, Sweden, Norway and on,

the fur changes won't be as extreme as in the far north of the globe.

As the winter gets colder,

their ear tufts, or ear hair gets longer and thicker, to isolate the heat better.

Squirrels regulates their body temperature, through the blood vessels in their ears.

As spring starts to appear, they will regain their lush, brownish and red colour,

to better camouflage themselves on the forest floor, resembling a fallen leaf.

As the temperature rises, the red squirrel will loose their cute ear tufts,

to better disperse the heat and again, to regulate their body temperatures.

So why doesn't Tintin's fur change?

As he primarily lives indoors,

his climate is barely changing over the seasons,

causing him to have a constant state of spring fur.

He might get a little grey behind his front legs doing winter,

but that's all that's going to change.