If you missed our
Polar Bear Alcatraz live chat with wildlife expert Peter Gros, we've got the transcript with your polar bear questions answered, right here.
Peter Gros: It's nice to be with you again to discuss one of the world's largest carnivores and how they survive in the most extreme climate.
iloveanimals321: I have heard that polar bears actually have black fur but the cold climate causes them to have hollow-colored hair. Is that true?
Peter Gros: Yes, it is true. When they're first born, they're almost completely light-colored, and then gradually as the months go by, you first start to see dark hair on the footpads (at about one month). The ears start becoming less pink, and eventually the hair around the top of the nose.
The hollow hair not only helps them with their buoyancy as they swim, but helps transmit heat to the inner dark skin to keep the bears warm while the outside of the thick hair is the same temperature as the outside climate.
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Peter Gros is a special adviser to Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom on Animal Planet and a former host of the original series. On behalf of Mutual of Omaha, he is involved with a nationwide education program that teaches students about the importance of conservation. As former director of land animals, and later vice president, at Marine World/Africa USA, he established breeding programs for 377 endangered animals. He later developed a rehabilitation program for birds of prey. Peter is an active member of several zoological and environmental education groups, a licensed exhibition and animal educator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and a frequent lecturer on the subject of conservation at universities, zoos and nature centers.
