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  • 2018-11-28 (xsd:date)
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  • Does This Photograph Show a Polar Bear Taking Public Transit in Russia? (en)
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  • A photograph purportedly showing a polar bear taking public transportation in Russia is frequently shared online with humorous captions such as just a normal day in Russia: This image has also been shared with punny captions such as The Polar Express, The bus was unBEARable, Auditioning for the new Coca-Cola bear, and Kindly bear with us as we get this aggressive passenger of the bus. This picture is a genuine photograph in the sense that it was not digitally manipulated, but it does not, as often claimed, capture a real polar bear exiting a bus in Russia. What this picture actually shows is a puppet known as Paula the Polar Bear exiting a tram in the Czech Republic city of Brno during a Save the Arctic campaign by Greenpeace. (The name of Rakovecká, a street in Brno, can be seen on the bus sign.) Two activists are actually operating this puppet from the inside as other Greenpeace members inform the public about matters such as climate change and arctic drilling. The Greenpeace Czech Republic Facebook page shared an image of Paula the Polar Bear in Liberec in October 2014: The Brno news outlet Centrum News reported in 2015 that this realistic polar bear puppet had frightened a few passers-by as it walked through the supermarket in Židenice (translated via Google): Paula the Polar Bear has made appearances in cities all over the world. Here, for example, is a video of Paula the Polar Bear visiting the Canterbury Cathedral in England: The Paula the Polar Bear puppet was also used in a short film starring Jude Law to promote Greenpeace's Save the Arctic campaign: A short film documenting the making of The Homeless Polar Bear provides a better look at how Paula the Polar Bear is operated: (en)
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