I belong to a Facebook zoo photography group and have been seeing photographs of polar bears recently and have a question. Foreign adult polar bears appear white like the cubs but the British adults appear discoloured. What is the reason for this?
The only British bears have large enclosures with earth and grass. Many foreign bears are still kept on rock or concrete (not all of them obviously).
Certainly the Polar bears at Yorkshire Wildlife Park seem to love rolling around in the mud from what I see every time I visit!
Also (not necessarily connected to the animals in the UK today), the individual hairs of Polar Bear fur are hollow and in captivity it is common for brown or green algae to grow inside the hairs. It is quite easy to find photos of captive bears which are green or brown.
Victor was green when he first arrived at YWP; I think their fur is transparent and hollow, absorbing whatever material they role around or swim in.
As the song goes, “Polar bears are pigeon toed, they walk on ice, blend in with the snow but they’re really not white; their skin is black, their fur is clear, they live in the Arctic far away from here.”
Victoria- the mother of the new cub at HWP seems particularly 'brown.' I think thats also due to the peaty soil in the enclosures there.
