Ace News Desk – How Do Polar Bears Keep Ice Off Their Fur? New Study Reveals the Secret—and It Could Improve Technology
The de-icing properties of polar bear sebum could fuel new innovations, scientists say, potentially unlocking alternatives to harmful “forever chemicals” used in ice-resistant coatings today
Polar bears don’t have to worry about skipping a wash day. The sebum, or natural oil, on the mammals’ fur helps them survive the harsh Arctic weather by making it hard for ice to stick to them, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.
Senior author Bodil Holst, a physicist at the University of Bergen in Norway, was compelled to investigate polar bear fur after watching a television quiz program. In an interview with Michael Le Page at New Scientist, she pointed out that despite numerous wildlife documentaries, she had never observed a polar bear encased in ice, even after the bear emerged from a dive in sub-zero waters. This realisation ignited her determination to explore the phenomenon further.
“And then I thought, how come freezing is not a problem? Why don’t you get ice accumulation on the fur under these circumstances?” says Holst to New Scientist.
To address these questions, Holst assembled an international team of researchers. The group compared the ice resistance of four materials: washed and unwashed polar bear fur, human hair, and ski equipment made from hair and coated with fluorocarbons. They conducted tests by measuring the force needed to slide an ice block off each material, as Science’s Alexa Robles-Gil reported.
Julian Carolan, the study’s lead author and a chemist at Trinity College Dublin, even used his own hair for the research. “It wasn’t that pleasant to do,” he tells the Washington Post’s Dino Grandoni. “I had to let my hair get very greasy over a week, which did not look very good. I then shaved it all off as close as I could to the scalp, which was tough on account of the greasiness. This also left me with a bald head in the cold month of January last year.”
For their efforts, the scientists found that ice has a much harder time sticking to unwashed, greasy polar bear hair than to oily human hair. When the polar bear fur was washed, it performed more like human hair, pointing to the sebum as the key to the anti-ice effect.
They then performed a chemical analysis of the polar bear sebum and identified cholesterol, diacylglycerols, and fatty acids as its primary components. Additionally, the bears’ sebum did not contain squalene, a fatty oil found in the hair of humans, sea otters and many aquatic mammals, suggesting this lack could help with ice resistance, per a statement from Trinity College Dublin.
The study confirms what people who work closely with polar bears have long known, as Geoff York, a biologist with Polar Bears International who was not involved in the research, tells the Washington Post. “When we get them on the ground, and they’re safely sedated, they’re amazingly dry.”
According to the paper, these new findings also reinforce Indigenous knowledge about the Arctic-dwelling bears. Inuit people have taken advantage of the sebum’s properties, even affixing shoe-like patches of polar bear fur to the bottom of stools to prevent them from sticking to the ice.
Understanding how polar bears stay warm and dry in the Arctic could help scientists develop alternatives to PFAS-laden anti-ice repellants. PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals” because of how long they persist in the environment, are often used to make non-stick and water-resistant materials. The researchers say engineers could use the ingredients found in polar bear sebum to create safer products.
“If we do it correctly, we have a chance of making them environmentally friendly,” says Holst to the Washington Post. “That is certainly the inspiration here.”
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