Nanuk's Hidden Warmth

A surprisingly cozy nap

Nanuk the polar bear cub stretched out on a wide, sun-warmed patch of ice and let out a happy sigh. The ice beneath him should have felt cold, but somehow he felt warm all the way through, like a stone that had been sitting in a campfire. "That's strange," he thought, wiggling his round belly deeper into the sunlight. "How can ice feel so cozy?"

A curious little clue

Rolling onto his side, Nanuk caught sight of his own nose, dark and round at the very tip of his white face. He lifted a paw to look at it too, and there, peeking through his thick white fur, were his paw pads, black as a moonless night. "Wait a moment," Nanuk said, crossing his eyes to stare at his nose. "My nose is black. My paws are black. Am I secretly a different kind of bear underneath?" He scampered off across the ice to find his mother, Suka, who was resting nearby.

Fur that isn't really white

"Mama, look!" Nanuk said, holding up one black paw pad. "Why are these parts of me dark, when the rest of me is white as snow?" Suka chuckled warmly and pulled a single strand of her own fur straight up so the sunlight could shine through it. "Look closely, little one. What color do you see?" Nanuk squinted at the thin strand. To his surprise, it wasn't white at all, it was clear, like a tiny icicle. "It's see-through!" he gasped. "Every strand of our fur is hollow and clear, just like that," Suka explained. "It only looks white because it scatters the sunlight every which way, the same trick fresh snow uses to look so bright."

The real color beneath

"But then why do I look white all over?" Nanuk asked, still puzzled. Suka gently parted the thick fur on his shoulder with one careful claw, brushing it aside until smooth skin showed beneath. Nanuk gasped. His skin, hidden this whole time under all that fluffy white fur, was jet black. "There's my secret," Suka said softly, "and yours too. Underneath our clear, snow-bright fur, our skin has always been black as midnight." "But why?" Nanuk asked. "Because black soaks up the sun's warmth far better than white ever could," Suka said. "While your see-through fur lets the sunlight pass right through and scatters it into a bright white glow, your dark skin quietly catches that warmth underneath and holds on to it, keeping you toasty even on the iciest ice."

Warm from the inside out

Nanuk looked down at himself with wide, delighted eyes, imagining his own hidden black skin soaking up sunshine like a smooth dark stone. He flopped back down onto the sun-warmed ice, feeling the good, cozy heat spread all through him now that he understood where it came from. "So I look snow-white on the outside," he said, "but I'm secretly gathering sunshine underneath, the whole time." Suka curled up beside him, warm and proud. "Just like that. Sometimes the most wonderful things about us are the ones nobody can see at first glance." Nanuk smiled and closed his eyes, feeling warmer, and prouder, than ever before.