Do furry hands leave fingerprints?

[Crawldragon]

I was just browsing through the old archives, and I came across comic 434, where Wildy gets her laptop. It being a black laptop, and being the owner of a black laptop myself, I thought to myself, "she's going to get fingerprints alllll over that thing."

Then I realized, "wait, she has fur on her fingers and arms. Does that mean she has a protective layer that keeps her from staining the laptop cover?"

Then I thought how tough it must be for forensics if furres don't leave fingerprints: it would be harder to tell "whodunit" if there were no fingerprints at a crime scene.

Then I realized I had no idea what I was talking about

so I figured I'd ask here: Do furres leave fingerprints, considering the amount of fur they have on their hands? Or do they maybe just have pawpads that we don't see in the comic, which would leave fingerprints? It's kind of a petty question, I know, but I figured it was worth asking if only for the lulz.

[Scrap Fish]

Depends on the artist's choosings. Well, if pads are on the hands, and they are direct adaptations from those of realy animals, there would be no finger prints. *checks pets' paws to make sure* But, considering they are anthro, they could actually have fingerprints. With fur, you wouldn't actually leave fingerprints, per se, but prints of hair oils, the occasional loose hairs, and what-not.
It is chosen by the artist which one of these methods is used.
Considering that (to the best of my knowledge) fingerprints have not been mentioned by the artist, we can not assume which method is being used.

[ShadesFox]

They might not leave finger prints... but think of the hair samples you could get!

[Crawldragon]

They might not leave finger prints... but think of the hair samples you could get!

Heh, I wonder if detective work is slow during shedding season

[SquirrelWizard]

yeah it just might be a case where the artist omits a detail so the art looks cleaner. Typically with any grasping feature you will have some sort of a pad (in our case its the ridges on our fingers that make finger prints) that prevents slipping. In this case they may have pads, and those pads may or may not be unique to serve as a finger/pad print.

But, like I said, its entirely up to the artist as to whether they want to go into that kind of detail or not.

[The_one_who_is_odd]

If I'm remembering right my dog's paws had cracks on the paw pads which may work if there are any oils and the artist draws them in...

[Chakat Blackspots]

I dunno, I've always thought it made sense to have pads on the tips of the fingers and a pad for the palm.  As anthro, I would imagine they would have fingerprints, or the cracks and oils would be unique to each person (as The_one_who_is_odd said)

[Reese Tora]

wow, that's a good question... generally speaking, the 'paw pads' on an animal are just places where the fingers or toes have extra padding and no hair; the pad is the same skin you would see if you were to remofve the rest of the hair.  Humans have fingerprints because the ridges help us to grip things better, which is important for a dexterous, tool using creature.  One might assume that in a world where animals evolved into humanoid creatures like furries that they might evolve finger print like ridges to better grasp objects which they manipulate.

That said, Mab's universe is distinctly magical, so far as we know all being furs are 'compatible, and we don't know teh origin of species of life, if evolution occurs or some creator (the fae? who knows... best not to over think it!) put them in place as is.

All that said, adn to the original thought; paw pads are just skin, and it would be reasonable to assume that it would leave oily prints of some sort.

going in another direction, the cracks and crevices that form on your fingers and mar your finger prints are part of what is used to identify someone, but the question would be just how much the grasping skin deforms on a regular basis; if furries have tough skined pad areas like the animals they are based on, the pads might not deform enough to form unique patterns of crevices, and cracking is something that could be averted by proper skin care. (would furry career criminals always carry hand lotion to keep the skin from cracking?)

[Turnsky]

generally the reason not many artists draw pawpads on anthro hands (i did until fairly recently) is because it's fairly fiddly detail wise, and it's just another step in the coloring process.
or it's a stylistic choice overall.

[Kage]

If you think about it; normal animals walk around on their paw pads all day long and over a variety of surfaces.  Rocks, dirt, grass, carpet, cement, their owners, whatever.   Thus that area will build up a very thick calloused area over time.   An indoor cat for example will have pretty soft paw pads, vs. an in/outdoor (or strictly outdoor) cat.  If you walked around barefoot all day long for most of your life, you'd have pretty tough natural souls on the bottoms of your feet too!   If you've ever gotten a blister on your hand, then the callus that develops there will sometimes also dry out and crack just like your dog's paws do.    TOO dry and this will start to bleed; the same holds true for dogs, humans, cats, whatever.

It seems to reason then, that if an animal were to develop prehensile thumbs and use their hands primary for grasping and tool work, their pads would not be all that radically different than the underside of a human hand.

So, anyone have some raccoons we can check?

As for why they aren't drawn in; as Turnsky pointed out, it can be the artist being lazy, pressed for time, or a stylistic thing.    I usually don't draw them for the same reasons why I don't draw finger nails.   I just feel it makes my pieces look overworked.

[Naldru]

Koalas have fingerprints, if that contributes to this discussion.

According to this article, raccoons do not have fingerprints.

[The_one_who_is_odd]

Koalas have fingerprints, if that contributes to this discussion.

According to this article, raccoons do not have fingerprints.

So has someone actually tried fingerprinting koalas and raccoons? I want to know what scientist has enough time to research trivial things like that...

[ShadesFox]

The same guy who researches if cows with names produce more milk then cows without names?  BTW, the answer is yes, the named cows produce more milk.

[Turnsky]

The same guy who researches if cows with names produce more milk then cows without names?  BTW, the answer is yes, the named cows produce more milk.

named cows also drop better than normal loot, too.   

[Crawldragon]

The same guy who researches if cows with names produce more milk then cows without names?  BTW, the answer is yes, the named cows produce more milk.

I would just love to know what combination of events caused him to want to know that.

[Tapewolf]

I would just love to know what combination of events caused him to want to know that.

Could have been anything.... an animal behaviour thesis.  Research work sponsored by the dairy industry.
Increasing the milk yield has an obvious business benefit...

[Naldru]

The study of the effect of naming cows could be an animal behavior study, but which animal is being studied, the cow or the handlers.

It could be that the result of giving the cows names could be affecting how the handlers act towards the cow, resulting in more personalized approach.  If some of the cows had numbers and some had names, it could be the handlers spend more time with the named cows.

Every so often I feel tempted to look deeper into some of these studies, but I've never been able to get interested enough.  This particular study seems difficult to have a single or double blind approach, and I suspect that the naming has far more impact on the handlers.

With regard to koalas having fingerprints, I saw a note once that this had confused some criminal investigations in Australia, with koala fingerprints being mistaken for human fingerprints.

The discussion with the raccoons was more concerned with the ridges that form the fingerprints.  Apparently, these ridges produce very fine tactile feedback when handling objects, and they were discussing the effect of the amount of tactile feedback on how it affected the animal's behavior.

[Scarydragon]

named cows also drop better than normal loot, too.   

Good luck explaining that to the farmer though.

"I don't know why you're so mad, I wasted hours looking for 'Betsy' and all she dropped was some grey item crap!"

[Anker Steadfast]

On the topic of fingerprints - In a magical world, would they even bother with fingerprints ?

Police appears on the scene ..
Policeman : "Oy, a crime has happened here and look, all the Dandelions outside the window have been flettenned, quick, whip out the scrying ball!!"
*one divination later*
Policeman : "Allright, go arrest Mab for trampling the Dandelions!"
Mab : "But .. but ... they ASKED for it!"
Policeman : "Right, right, all the pink furries say that."
Mab : ".. but .. "
Policeman : "Off to the jail with you, hop to it now."
Policeman : "And where is my Donut ?"
*a bit later*
Dan : *gasp* "Mab has been kidnapped - To The RESCUE!!"
*dramatic pose*
Dan : "Allright, who has a scrying ball to find out who did it ?"