A purple polar bear has become a big attraction at an Argentinian zoo.

Officials claim medication given to the bear to treat a case of dermatitis is responsible for the colour change.

It has increased visitor numbers to the zoo in Mendoza by 50%, reports Clarin newspaper.

Vets say the bear's fur will go back to its normal colour in about a month.

link....ananova.com

I remember him. SO cute.

I saw a pink elephant once....

....okay more than once...

You seen him too!!.... I'm glad I'm not the only one...

The Bear is super cute though.... had no idea it was medication that did that too him... I thought some brave soul tried to dye his hair.... they would have been

He looks fake??? How is that possible???

I wonder what the polar bear thinks about all this!

he is probly plotting his revenge

Yeah i remember him too - Great colour for a bear! Same colour as my hair

That's cool. Something like that happened with a poorly maintained polar bear exhibit at the bronx zoo. The bear turned green because algae from the water had started to grow in it's fur.

I saw this before and assumed someone had dyed his hair that way, and thought it was pretty cruel...

But if the medication is helping him then cool, he is pretty cute..

he must be embarrassed as hell

Why does it look like the rocks, soil, and gate were painted/medicated too?
It must have been some really strong and wacked up medication to be able to do that. Does anybody else see something inhumane going on here?

Good catch, I had to go back and look. Photo Shop maybe?

Damn, that bear stole my plans, I was going to dye my hair that color some time this week.

Is this acually true? It looks kinda photoshopped, but I can't really tell. I know if you eat to many carrots you can turn orange. but a bear turning purple? I dont think so, either someone dted him, or its fake, cause once hair grows it dies, your hair is actually dead, so he would have had to grown purple hair, and if that was the case, the ends would be white still, only the roots would be purple. I vote false. Any others?

How cute

polar bear fur is transparent. they're very pale, and that's why they have "white" fur... so his hair is either being affected, or his skin is purple.... unless i'm wrong once again... i don't know

The Purple of the bears skin is very contrasted to the usual green colour of his pen. It's normal, it just looks weird because of the contrast, Athenian.

LOL! I had a friend who once dyed his hair that exact color using temporary dye for Halloween. Only he didn't read the directions on the bottle first, where it said not to use it on previously dyed hair.

He finally wound up having to shave his head. He looked like the purple McDonald's character (Grimace?)!

The bear wears it much better.

That pic does not make me happy. I cannot quite believe meds would do that to his fur, so either someone has dyed his fur which is truly dispicable, poor little thing, or its photoshopped.
Oh and that cage looks pretty cramped and dirty. Poor bear.