The belief is widespread that the Arctic predators hide their black nose in order to disguise them so that they are not visible against the background of ice. We figured out whether there are observations that confirm this assumption.

Against the background of the whitish-yellow wool of a large predator, the black nose really stands out. The indigenous inhabitants of the North supposedly They toldthat during the hunt, white bears hide it with the help of a front paw, and thus become less noticeable for potential production. This legend was reflected in the Soviet cartoon about Umku, where Mom-Medveditsa speaks The main character, when he tries to catch the fish: “Close your nose with your paw, he gives you out. You are all white, and your nose is black. ”

In his book "Born under the Arctic Sun" researcher of the north Anatoly Kochnev Disassembles Myths associated with the methods of hunting white bears. He says that he more than once watched the animals cover the nose with the front paw, but this always happened during sleep or rest: “The cause of this action served a severe frost or wind, during which a bare and wet bear nose was vulgarly frozen and warmed up with the help of paws. Dogs are also made in accuracy, in cold weather, turning around with a ball and hiding their nose in wool. ”

With a Russian colleague solidarity Canadian zoologist Jan Steering. In 1973, for two weeks, he, along with several colleagues, watched white bears on the island of Devon and recorded 288 cases when these animals hunted. “None of the cases were observed, as the front paw covers a black nose that caught his eye,” struck the expedition of Stirling in his article.

Although the bears during the hunt do not hide their black nose, they can resort to other masking methods. According to washing, in 13% of cases, animals hid behind the irregularities of ice, slightly bending during movement. Researchers emphasize that in any of these observations the hunt was not successful. Kochnev Adds: “I had to see how the bears, finding himself in a cluster of several hundred seals, accelerated most of them with such a macar, without caught a single one.”