TheDenverChannel.com – News – Polar Bear Turns Purple After Medication — Perhaps a reader can uncover exactly what this “treatment” was. To me it looks as if they simply soaked the bear in a vat of wine.
A female polar bear named Pelusa turned purple after she was given a special treatment to clear up a skin condition.
The strange sight has attracted crowds of visitors at the Mendoza City Zoo in Argentina. Zoo officials said her fur will go back to her normal cream color in a few days.
The 14-year-old bear suffers from dermatitis.
found by Sergio Gasparrini
More importantly, what caused the bars above the bear to turn purple as well? Looks like the worst photoshopping job ever.
That news is OLD, I’ve seen it on CNN en español some time ago.
Maybe she ate Tinky Winky…
Gentian Violet might have been used to treat a fungal infection. Just a guess though.
Yes, that’s an old story; also saw it on CNN en Español about six months ago. The bear got dosed with gentian violet (http://www.bflrc.com/newman/handouts/0501-HO06-Gentian_Violet.htm), a topical disinfectant used for skin ailments
How long until all zoos start doing this to attract visitors?
Interesting. How many people know what color Polar Bear hair really is?
Answer. None. It is actually clear. It is, however, hollow and porous so that it traps air. That gives the bear insulation and a small degree of buoyancy. What makes it appear white is the light reflecting off of it is refracted into the entire spectrum, hence it appears white. The same effect is seen with snow. Each ice crystal is clear but because of the way it reflects light, it appears white. When a Polar Bear appears slightly yellow or cream, that is usually dirt.
Now go and amaze your friends with how smart you are.
the treatment they used? one word: Photoshop … that’s so fake looking – I almost wonder if that’s even a polar bear
It was treated with ink 😛
Damnit, I hate it when people say “photoshop” when they don’t know what they are talking about – the purple fringing in there looks like an artifact of a crap camera, not PS.
Its like that green kitten a while back.. everyone claimed that was fake too.
It’s just a poor quality photo with the saturation boosted.
My money is on Gentian Violet. We used to use it on our guinea pigs when they got a particular skin disease.
Cleaned them right up, but they sure did look a bit funny till the stuff wore off.
a polar bear dosen’t belong in Argentina for christs sake. When are we going to stop putting animals in climates they can’t live in? In fact, except for threatened species special breeding sanctuaries, we have no damn business keeping ANY animal in any climate.
Tear down all the zoo’s and sell off the land to developers then use the money to buy natural habitat lands for the freakin animals, then maybe most of them will be here in 200 years.
Polar Bears unfortunatly are going to disappear due to global warming, they are already having trouble with the early ice melts and late freezes.
Mother Nature is a heartless and cruel woman and man is the biggest parasite and locast plague this world will ever see.
Ok….rant over….
Does that mean I shouldn’t eat the Polar Bear steak in my freezer?
yeah! i agree with joshua. zoo’s are the devil. mostly.. and u people who claim its photoshop are morons. this was on the news its true, the polar bear had a skin condition and it had to be doused with that purple stuff to get rid of it, its like the antiseptics we use on cuts etc. but he couldn’t swim for something like two or three weeks so that explains the vibrancy of the colour.. you people are much too cynical. though i would usually enjoy it, you’re way off on this day morons.