When sunlight shines on Polar bear fur, it causes a reaction known as luminescence. Under construction May 2011. Their coat is so well camouflaged in Arctic environments that it can sometimes pass as a snow drift. It's a little like burning ants under a magnifying glass. If you were to look at a Polar bear’s guard hair really closely through a super microscope, you could see tiny little bumps – these are the light scattering particles. Does the coat color of a polar bear change with the environment? Before we get to the bottom of why polar bears appear to have such a range of colors, it’s important to know a key fact about polar bear fur. Under the Microscope: Polar bears were in the news recently when the media widely disseminated news of the polar bear cub rejected by its mother in Germany's Nuremberg Zoo.Polar bears are … Zoomed in under a microscope, each one has a long, cylindrical core punched straight through its center. The hair looks white because the air spaces in each hair scatter light of all colors. Saved from Uploaded by user. Here is an electron microscope image of a cross section of polar bear fur. When you look at the white fur under a microscope, it is actually clear tubes, almost glass-like in a sense, that they refract sunlight onto the skin. Why do polar bears have white fur? Polar bear fur is not a fiber optic. The insulation provided by a polar bear’s fat, skin and fur helps them survive in the frigid Arctic. Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a cross-section through a shaft of an insulating hair from a polar bear (Ursus maritimus). In visible light, each hair is translucent, reflecting light in all directions, just like snow. For engineers, polar bear hair is a dream template for synthetic materials that might lock in heat just as well as the natural version. Polar bear fur looks very different than human hair under a microscope. While it appears white to the naked eye, it is in fact colorless because it is both hollow and transparent. All those picture we see of polar bears looking playful as they roll and slide on the snow, they are actually cooling themselves off. The sun bear has the shortest fur so it can keep cool in the hot forests of Southeast Asia. BEARS. Captive bears have been observed to turn green in colour due to growth of algae on its fur. The sloth bear has the shaggiest fur. Polar bear insulating hair. 1. Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a cross-section through shafts of insulating hair from a polar bear (Ursus maritimus). "Looked at under an electron microscope, polar bear hair is solid and totally transparent, acting like a fibre optic, conducting light down the hair to the animal's black skin." One black bear sample was 290mm, and a polar bear sample was 170mm. Why do polar bears look so white? In what spectrum? The image was taken by Bill May who holds the copyright it is used here by permission. In this follow-up to “A Microscopical Study Of Exotic Animal Hairs: Part 1”, the animals have been chosen at random. The hollow insulate fur hair of a polar bear through a electron microscope. Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a cross-section through a shaft of an insulating hair from a polar bear (Ursus maritimus). Unlike the hairs of humans or other mammals, polar bear hairs are hollow. Researchers copy off of polar bear fur to create new, powerful insulator Learning from the best. "Polar bear's nose for warmth: Answers to correspondents", Daily Mail (London), p. 57, Jan. 29, 1997. The hollow insulate fur hair of a polar bear through a electron microscope. Discover ideas about All Nature. ORDER CARNIVORA (the carnivores) Family Ursidae (the ursids) Black Bear (Ursus americanus)Brown Bear (Ursus arctos)Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus)LENGTH: Guard hairs tend to be long, maximum length of the hair more than 60mm, often up to 100 mm. Do polar bears just need better shampoo? For polar bears, the insulation provided by their fat, skin, and fur is a matter of survival in the frigid Arctic. Radiative Properties of Polar Bear Hair. A polar bear’s fur is transparent. ... One of the most interesting radiative properties of polar bear fur is that it is invisible in the infrared region.