{"id":72778,"date":"2025-08-16T13:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T13:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/72778\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T13:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T13:18:08","slug":"why-do-polar-bears-have-white-fur-turns-out-they-dont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/72778\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do Polar Bears Have White Fur? Turns Out, They Don\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"

Polar bears have become something of an icon for the Arctic. The world\u2019s largest land predators<\/a>, they are big, they are beautiful, they are \u2013 not white, actually. Across their evolution they\u2019ve developed some curious adaptations for life in the cold, and we don\u2019t yet understand all of them.<\/p>\n

The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.<\/p>\n

Polar bears can tolerate extremely cold temperatures, living in regions where the winter can drop to -46\u00b0C<\/a> (-50\u00b0F) for weeks at a time. Life-ending stuff for a human, but everything from a polar bear\u2019s skin to its paws and claws is custom-built to their environment.<\/p>\n

Why do polar bears have white fur?<\/p>\n

\u201cPolar bear fur is not actually white!\u201d said Polar Bears International\u2019s Director of Conservation Outreach and Staff Scientist Alysa McCall<\/a> to IFLScience. \u201cThe fur is clear so, as the hair scatters light, it appears white to our eyes. Their fur is also mostly hollow, which helps trap heat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their fur also has a special type of grease that prevents the hairs from icing up in the cold.<\/p>\n

Alysa McCall<\/p>\n

Yes, if you\u2019ve been thinking all this time that polar bears have white fur, I\u2019m afraid you\u2019ve been fooled by a trick of the light. The hairs themselves aren\u2019t white, but clear, and the way that the scattering light makes them appear white makes for excellent camouflage against the snow. This has enabled polar bears to become expert ambush hunters (though the jury\u2019s out on whether or not it helps them throw ice blocks at walruses\u2019 heads<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Turns out, there are many cold-tolerance benefits to a polar bear’s fur.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolar bear fur comes in two layers \u2013 a dense, thick layer close to the body that acts as a warm sweater, and a longer outer layer that acts more like a raincoat and wicks water away,\u201d said McCall. \u201cThese two very dense layers of fur keep polar bears very warm even in extremely cold temperatures. However, fur is not insulating when polar bears are swimming (that\u2019s when their body fat helps!).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir fur also has a special type of grease that prevents the hairs from icing up<\/a> in the cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do polar bears have black skin?<\/p>\n

A lot of research has gone in to unraveling the mysteries of polar bears\u2019 magic fur, but there are still some things we don\u2019t understand about their bodies and how it better prepares them for life in the cold.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolar bear skin is black, but we don\u2019t know why,\u201d said McCall. \u201cWe assumed it could help absorb warmth, but early testing seems to indicate that this may not be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your secret\u2019s safe for now, you sneaky polar bears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Polar bears have become something of an icon for the Arctic. The world\u2019s largest land predators, they are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-72778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}