  The drying of wet fur is a critical to mammalian heat regulation. In this
fluid dynamics video, we show a sequence of films demonstrating how hirsute
animals to rapidly oscillate their bodies to shed water droplets, nature's
analogy to the spin cycle of a washing machine. High-speed videography and
fur-particle tracking is employed to determine the angular position of the
animal's shoulder skin as a function of time. X-ray cinematography is used to
track the motion of the skeleton. We determine conditions for drop ejection by
considering the balance of surface tension and centripetal forces on drops
adhering to the animal. Particular attention is paid to rationalizing the
relationship between animal size and oscillation frequency required to
self-dry.
