What does a polar bear look like to the eyes of a satellite?

Their dense fur absorbs portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, which can make polar bears difficult to detect for infrared satellites tasked with wildlife observation. The cooler region created by their shadows on the ice might be their only visible trace. Like a strange hunting trophy from the worlds of machine vision, the rug – made from semi-transparent urethane – looks as if it, too, is a shadow on the ground.