How polar bears prevent ice from freezing on their fur

Polar bears have a hidden I-plain-view superpower, like anyone who has seen a wildlife documentary, could have seen: Ice is not sticking to their fur.

This has long been Nown to indigenous people in the Arctic who have used this property of fur, but only now it has been notified and studied by scientists. Bodil Holst at the University of Bergen in Norway and her colleagues have shown that the ice resistance from polar bearspels is due to natural oils excreted on the hair, rather than a property of the coat itself.

Holst is a physicist who studies the properties of the surfaces. Her interest in polar bearspels began while watching a TV quiz program, she saw that the bears hardly appeared on infrared cameras because they are so well insulated. This means that the template on their outer coat is under freezing, Holst realized, but she had never seen a polar bear in wildlife film that was covered with IC, even after swimming in Under-Nul Waaters.

“And then I thought, yes, how is freezing is not a problem? Why don’t you get the accumulation of ice on the fur in these circumstances? ”She says.

After all, this is a problem for many other land mammals in the cold around, from musk tox to bearded polar explorers. Holst asked researchers at the Norwegian Polar Institute if they knew why polar bearspels not ice. No one did, but they decided to investigate together.

Holst and her colleagues encountered samples of polar bearspels from Svalbard in Norway and compared them to human hair. They found that the force required to remove ice from polar bear hair was a quarter of what was down to human hair – which means the bears can easily shake any ice off.

Washing of the polar bear removed its ice resistance, suggesting that the oily coating on the hair is the key to its properties. This substance, known as sebum, is excreted by acorns associated with hair rows.

Polar bear sebum lacks a substance called the squaales often found in sebum, especially in aquatic mammals, found the team. It also contains some unusual fatty acids. These may be unique to polar bears, but we cannot be sure of it, as so few studies have looked at the composition of expensive sebum, says Holst.

Arctic people like Inuit have traditionally prepared polar bearspels in a way that predicts sebum, as opposed to methods used for other furs. They have also used the coat in ways that make use of its CE-resistant properties.

For example, it is known that Inuit hunters in Greenland have placed small pieces of polar bear’s fur under the legs of the stool used by hunters to stop them to stick to ice. They also tightened polar bearspels to the boots in the boots while pursuing animals to get the noise made of iCre-Coater surfaces.

Holst’s team is now investigating potential applications, such as creating environmentally friendly skivox that donates the long-la-la-la-la-la-la-lash that are composed to take icing.

A hair wax based on ice creambum can also help people who work in cold around. “I hadn’t thought about the application, Ablutelly, to work,” says Holst. “I think you’ve just given me a new idea.”