1. Covering its nose while hunting. Polar bears do not cover its black nose while hunting for seals. Dr. Ian Stirling and several assistants used telescopes to watch polar bears hunt for several weeks each year for several years. No bear was ever seen putting a paw over its nose while stalking a seal. It is impossible for a bear to walk, crawl or stalk on three legs while holding its paw over its nose for an extended period.
2. Left-pawed. Great white bears are not left-pawed. Scientists observing the animals have not noticed a preference. In fact, polar bears seem to use their right and left paws equally.
3. Use of tools when hunting. Polar bears do not use tools, including blocks or ice, to kill their prey. This idea may have come about because, after failing to catch a seal, a frustrated and angry polar bear may kick the snow, slap the ground or hurl chunks of ice.
4. Hollow hair conducts UV light. For decades, scientists believed that polar bear hairs function as fiber-optic conductors. They believed the hairs collect ultra-violet light and direct it to the black skin where it is converted into heat.
Polar bears have fur that suits their needs just fine without being fiber-optic. UV was absorbed by keratin in the hair, which explains why polar bears look black in UV light.
5. Symbiosis with arctic fox. Polar bears do not share food with arctic fox in exchange for the fox's warning system. Arctic fox do travel behind polar bears and scavenge on scraps. In fact, foxes often annoy bears by nipping at their heels in an attempt to drive a bear off its prey. Polar bears sometimes lunge at or slap a fox. During the spring season when both hunt ringed seal pups, they can be considered competitors.
6. Orca whale predation. Scientist Ian Stirling concedes that while an orca might have an opportunity to attack a bear stranded on a remnant of ice, such an encounter is extremely unlikely. To his knowledge, it has never been observed.
7. Bi-polar bears? Polar bears live only in Arctic areas that surround the North Pole—not in Antarctica, which surrounds the South Pole. School children often see illustrations of penguins and polar bears together, but this could never happen. In fact, the word arctic comes from the Greek word for bear, and Antarctic comes from the Greek meaning the opposite, without bear.
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