THERMAL SCIENCE

International Scientific Journal

Ji-Huan HeORCID

,

Qing-li WangORCID

,

Jie Sun

CAN POLAR BEAR HAIRS ABSORB ENVIRONMENTAL ENERGY?

ABSTRACT
A polar bear (Ursus maritimus) has superior ability to survive in harsh Arctic regions, why does the animal have such an excellent thermal protection? The present paper finds that the unique labyrinth cavity structure of the polar bear hair plays an important role. The hair can not only prevent body temperature loss but can also absorb energy from the environment.
KEYWORDS
polar bear, Ursus maritimus, thermal protection, hair
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2011-07-03
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2011-07-07
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI1103911H
CITATION EXPORT: view in browser or download as text file
THERMAL SCIENCE YEAR 2011, VOLUME 15, ISSUE No. 3, PAGES [911 - 913]
REFERENCES
[1] Grojean, R. E., Sousa, J. A., Henry, M. C., Utilization of Solar Radiation by Polar Animals: An Optical Model for Pelts, Applied Optics, 19 (1980), 3, pp. 339-346, 10.1364/ao.19.000339
[2] Tributsch, H., Goslowski, H., Küppers, U., Wetzel, H., Light Collection and Solar Sensing through the Polar Bear Pelt, Solar Energy Materials, 21(1990), 2-3, pp. 219-236, 10.1016/0165-1633(90)90056-7
[3] Wang, Q. L., He, J.-H., Pan, N., Structure of Polar Bear Hair, Nonlinear Science Letters D, 1 (2010), pp.159-162
[4] Wang, Q. L., He, J.-H., Li, Z. B., Fractional Model for Heat Conduction in Polar Bear Hairs, accepted for publication in Thermal Science, 16 (2012), No. 2, 10.2298/tsci110503070w
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Can polar bear hairs absorb environmental energy?

© 2026 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International licence