# Do Arctic-Foxes have black skin?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arctic-foxes-have-black-skin/623710>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 31, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arctic-foxes-have-black-skin/623710 "2012-05-31T22:10:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arctic-foxes-have-black-skin/623710/1 "2012-05-31T22:10:30Z")

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I recently watched a documentary on arctic wildlife and I was wondering about something.

Its an unusual fact that under their white fur the skin of a polar bear is black, I was wondering if this is also the case with the arctic-fox? A google search gives contradictory information on this point.

An indicator is that a polar bears tongue is also black but an arctic-fox’s tongue appears to be the boringly normal pink which suggests they don’t have black skin.

Any ideas, and please don’t feel the need to conduct some field research to find out! :eek: 😃

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [May 31, 2012, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arctic-foxes-have-black-skin/623710/2 "2012-05-31T22:52:40Z")

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This says yes (page 4)  
[Black Skin: Structure and Function](http://books.google.com/books?id=BpL8V2YJkQ4C&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=Arctic-Foxes+black+skin?&source=bl&ots=y3LE7lM481&sig=XNG518LwcRuhHgCdyMca9CU9eUQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XPXHT_iRF6nt0gG1y-3tDw&ved=0CHcQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=false)

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**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-arctic-foxes-have-black-skin/623710/3 "2012-06-01T23:29:03Z")

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Thanks, but that source is contradicted by other sources I’ve found on google.

No biggie though, I was just wondering. 🙂