Japanese Polar Bears Green With Algae
Posted September 7, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Visitors to a Japanese zoo must have thought they’d stumbled in to some other country’s exhibit – Ireland’s, perhaps – when they spied a change at one of the most popular pens.
Normally white polar bears had a decidedly different hue, appearing green in the bright light. But it wasn’t envy that caused the change, it was algae.
They’re not sick or carrying mould, an official from Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens explained Sunday.
They’ve just been swimming in a pond with an overgrowth of algae.
And once that scum enters the hollow space in the fur, it’s, well, a bear to get out.
But don’t worry – it’ll all be gone by November.
Then again, they may bring the shade back out for St Patrick’s Day.
File photo.
