The full, skinned pelt of an adult bantha can be over twenty five square metres of thick, coarse fur, with individual fibres up to a metre long. While it seems counterintuitive for a desert animal to have such a dense and long coat, the fur actually keeps the bantha insulated from the heat. The individual fibres have thermal insulating properties which rival modern thermal protection suits – some studies suggest that it was the study of these fibres that led to the development of the first, truly effective heat insulation clothing for modern society. Bantha fur comes in a variety of shades of brown, from a light fawn to deep mahogany. The fur is quite coarse, and therefore individual strands have reasonable tensile strength, meaning rope woven from these hairs can be quite strong. This coarseness does preclude its use for more refined purposes, although some primitive cultures do use the strands to create woven goods for barter, as well as to decorate their dwellings. Some tribes have developed methods of bleaching the thick strands and adding various naturally derived dyes to them, creating rungs and tapestries of surprising colour and vibrance. The most frequent use for bantha furs however is as insulation on the floor and walls of tents and other nomadic tribe houses, where the heat insulating properties help keep the internal temperatures bearable even in the hottest days and coldest nights.