Mystery as decomposed remains of three ‘Polar bears’ wash up on Scottish beach

SCOTTISH islanders claim to have found the decomposed remains of three Polar bears washed up on a beach.

Rotting grey blobs believed to be animal carcasses appeared at different points on the west coast of Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides.

Baffled locals were not able to identify them at first as they were covered in debris and smelled so bad nobody wanted to get too close.

After being left for three months the debris has blown away to reveal the animals have white pelts, and islanders are convinced they must be polar bears.

Colin Flower, 70, said: "Initially, these were grey blobs, they didn't look like anything. Even a vet who had a look couldn't come to a conclusion.

"Now, this grey coating covering them has blown away, or at least that's my theory, and a white pelt is now visible.

"They are three metres long and you can also make out a head and eye socket now.

"I can't see what else it could be? There's no other sea creature that has that fur."

Colonsay islander Kevin Byrne said: "The bodies came ashore two or three months ago, and we were puzzled immensely.

"They were big lumps that seemed to have hair and limbs, but they were very, very smelly.

"Some people thought they were deep sea creatures and others imagined they had hooves.

"They were dragged up away from the beach, and we thought, when they rotted down we'd get a look at the skeleton.

"Then recently Colin Flower suddenly realised what they were. They are polar bears."

The beach is 1,400 miles from the Arctic habitat of the world's largest land predators - and locals claim the discovery could be a symptom of global warming.

Instances of polar bears drifting on ice floes have been recorded in the past few years as sea ice is breaking up earlier each spring and freezing later each autumn.

Mr Byrne, 69, said: "If the ice cap is melting, the Arctic will become an open ocean so there will be a change in currents

"If it melts, one might imagine that water from that open area will flow south, towards the equator, and that would explain the bears."

The discovery was shared with local people on Saturday via the Friends of Colonsay Facebook page.

The admin for the page wrote: "Many Friends will remember the mystery remains that came ashore here.

"They seemed to be covered in hair, had hooves, smelt of blubber. They were examined by doctors and veterinarians, a rumour started that they were horses."

The post explained a local farmer "hauled one carcass clear of the sea at Port Easdail and it has now begun to reveal its structure.

"Colin Flower has had a close look, it is a polar bear! We must assume that a small family was marooned upon an ice floe which melted, causing them to drown."

Photos of the mystery beasts left experts unconvinced.

Vincent Janik, director of the Scottish Oceans Institute at St Andrews University, said: "I have consulted with some of my colleagues and we were unable to identify what this is from the images."

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, the body that runs Edinburgh Zoo, said it was "highly unlikely" a dead polar bear would drift so far down from the Arctic Circle.

A spokeswoman said: "It’s vaguely possible it’s a walrus.

"It would help of course if its skull was still there, but the only way to know for certain would be to do a DNA test."

In 2010, British magazine Country Life published a spoof April Fool's Day article claiming a live polar bear had washed up on the Isle of Mull.

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