Purple Polar Bear

[ALJO]

Yahoo news today featured photo from Argentine zoo of polar bear that had turned purple from medical treatment. Said will turn back white in a month. Isn’t this impossible? Isn’t hair dead? More likely bear got dye bath for world publicity?
ALJO

[Q.E.D]

It appears to be real. I saw live video of it on my local (major network) news today. It’s probably a topical treatment, like a shampoo, not an internal medication.

[Musicat]

Dye bath or not, wouldn’t the bear hair grow back eventually? As white?

Now then, very softly:

How much bear hair can a white bear grow if a white bear could bare hare?

[friedo]

Yes, it was a topical treatment rubbed onto the bear’s skin. As new hair grows and the purple wears off, the bear will turn white again.

[scr4]

The story says:

… for a few days longer [the polar bear] will look purple because we’ve applied an ointment as a treatment for skin problems…

That doesn’t sound like enough time for new hair to grow. I think the purple ointment simply washes off or breaks down naturally.

[Fear_Itself]

Probably potassium permanganate, which is sometimes used to treat eczema and dermatitis. If so the purple stain will stay around for several days on skin, perhaps longer on fur.

[Duckster]

Despite what our eyes tell us, a polar bear’s fur is not white. Each hair shaft is pigment-free and transparent with a hollow core.

Polar bears look white because the hollow core scatters and reflects visible light, much like ice and snow does.

When photographed with film sensitive to ultraviolet light, polar bears appear black.

In 1979, three polar bears at the San Diego Zoo turned green. Scientists discovered that colonies of algae were growing in the bears’ hollow hair shafts.

Although the algae in no way harmed the animals, zoo veterinarian Phillip Robinson restored the bears’ white fur by killing the algae with a salt solution.

The fur on a polar bear cub is whiter than that of adult bears. In older bears, fur colors range from white to almost yellow.

Hybrid cubs born to captive polar bears and their close relative, the brown bear, are white at birth but later turn blue- brown or yellow-white.

A polar bear is so well-insulated that it experiences almost no heat loss. In addition to its insulating fur, the bear’s blubber layer can measure 4.5 inches thick.

So effective is the polar bear’s insulation that adult males quickly overheat when they run.

Because polar bears give off no detectable heat, they do not show up in infrared photographs. (Infrared film measures heat.) When a scientist attempted to photograph a bear with such film, he produced a print with a single spot–the puff of air caused by the animal’s breath.

Source: http://www.polarbearsalive.org/facts3.htm

[rowrrbazzle]

In the threads on this subject in MPSIMS and the Pit, sailor posted a link to an article in Spanish that said gentian violet (“violeta de genciana”) was used. It’s a topical treatment (as noted above) for candidiasis and fungal infections.

[kniz]

Does this mean the bear is a:

[ul]Purple People Eater?[/ul]

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

This polar bear has been graped by the Grapist!

[Fear_Itself]

*Originally posted by kniz *
** Does this mean the bear is a:

[ul]Purple People Eater?[/ul] **

Why? Has he eaten any purple people?