Hairy Bulborb

Hairy Bulborbs are enemies in. They are similar in appearance to other bulborbs, but have white backs with blue spots and a lot of fluffy, white fur. As the creature's health begins to fall, so does its hair, revealing its blue spots, making it more closely resemble its breadbug mimic, though larger in size. Hairy Bulborbs are similar in most respects to other mature bulborbs, but tend to live in colder environments. They have less health and are slightly slower than the Red Bulborb, but can be defeated using similar techniques. The Whiptongue Bulborb in is very similar in coloration.

Behavior
Hairy Bulborbs are nocturnal creatures found in colder climates such as the Valley of Repose, found in caves. This exposes them to being attacked by Pikmin due to the fact that they won't awake unless attacked. They can also awaken if bumped into or if a carried object hits them.

Once awoken, they become aggressive and will attempt to eat any nearby Pikmin. If it manages to successfully catch any Pikmin, it will then stand still to eat them. If it fails to catch any Pikmin, it will trip and then get up to try once more. If there's multiple Pikmin attacking the Hairy Bulborb, it will shake them off and attempt to catch Pikmin once more.

If the Grub-Dog loses track of the Pikmin or Leader, it will then look around and fall back asleep once more.

Pikmin
The Hairy Bulborb should be attacked while sleeping and approached carefully to delay it waking up as late as possible. If accidentally awakened, it can be made to fall back asleep by leaving it alone for a while. As with other mature bulborbs, this creature's attacks are biting and shaking, biting being the more harmful.

As with most fights, Purple Pikmin are the most effective, and cause serious damage when thrown; the impact should stun the Bulborb, and it can be taken out quickly. Without Purple Pikmin, defeating one is trickier; rather than swarming it, try continuously tossing Pikmin, preferably Red Pikmin, onto its back. If necessary, using an ultra-bitter spray to petrify the beast and swarming it with a fairly large army makes for an easy battle.

Leaders
Like all bulborbs, the Hairy Bulborb can be killed by a leader, but it will take a while. One must be careful to dodge the creature's bite and, to a lesser extent, keep away when it shakes, as this damages leaders as well.

Biology
Bulborbs are among the creatures with the most diverse physiology in the Pikmin series, and the Hairy Bulborb is quite similar in design to them. They possess traits similar to those of amphibians, reptiles, and mammals. Hairy Bulborb's have large bulbous eyes set in stalks, as opposed to the compound eyes of most insects. These eyes are a shade of dark blue. They are mostly white in color, matching their snowy environment and with a brown nose.

The Hairy Bulborb also has a coat of white fur on its back which is an exclusive adaptation to the Grub-Dog family, as well as being a rare adaption as most creatures on the planet lack hair in general. Olimar states that it is used to warm their vital organs, which allows the creature to survive in their colder climates. Additionally, the hair follicles are quite weak, as when they lose half of their health they shed the fur. This could be an adaptation used to scare away any potential predators which have caught the beast by surprise, allowing for a rapid escape.

Once the fur has been shed, it reveals the creatures blue colored spots, unlike the regular Bulborbs white spots on a red body.

There have never been any confirmed juvenile Hairy Bulborbs in the franchise as the closest seen are the Snow Bulborbs, which are Breadbug mimics. Hairy Bulborbs have been spotted sleeping near the mimics, which could be due to the creature thinking that they are young Hairy Bulborbs. The only true juvenile Bulborbs are Dwarf Frosty Bulborbs. There are Bulborb Larva and Albino Dwarf Bulborbs which are juvenile Grub-Dogs, however it is unknown whether they can mature into Hairy Bulborbs.

According to the notes from Olimar, when certain environmental changes occur, a female Bulborb can turn herself into an Empress Bulblax, taking on the role of a pack matriarch and birthing a lot of larvae. The Empress Bulblax has a similar appearance to the Bulborb as both have a red body with white spots. This means that it’s possible for a Hairy Bulborb variant of the Empress Bulblax to exist and that similar behavior could occur.

We also see that Bulbmin are a type of Pikmin which infect other creatures to take control of them. The only seen host up to Pikmin 4 is that of a Bulborb, however, Olimar implied in his notes that it’s possible for other creatures to be hosts so its possible that a Hairy Bulbmin variant exists.

Trivia

 * In the Pikmin 2 prototype, Louie strangely seems to refer to the Hairy Bulborb as a bird, saying things such as to "pluck the feathers" instead of the hair, or mentioning that the foil should "protect the bird from scorching". It's possible that in the game's very early stages, the Hairy Bulborb was once a bird-related creature.
 * The Japanese version of the Hairy Bulborb's recipe was drastically changed in the American version. Instead of the bulborb being grilled in foil, it says to brew the hair into a drink which, according to the notes, increases blood circulation. This might refer to how the hair keeps the bulborb's vital organs warm, as stated in Olimar's notes.
 * Louie's notes say that one should pull out the hairs, though the creature's hair already falls off on its own when it dies.
 * The Hairy Bulborb and Snow Bulborb are featured heavily in unused and template caves, likely as placeholder/test enemies. This possibly stems from their origin as yellow Bulborbs, which were often seen as placeholders in prerelease material.