Russian scientists search for polar bear with black 'T-34' sprayed on its side

A video of a polar bear walking with large black T-34 letters written all over its right side - name of the iconic Soviet tank - is going viral on the Russian web. 

The video was uploaded to a WhatsApp group for Chukotka indigenous people, said Sergey Kavry, who posted the file to his social media. 

It is not clear when the video was made or indeed where exactly it was filmed. 

Behind the camera chatter shows that two men who filmed the polar bear have never came across anything like that. 

‘Why is it so dirty?’ one of them asks as the recording begins. 

‘A spotty bear?’ answers another, before realising there was writing on the predator. 

We had to beep the rest of the recording due to the Russian expletives. 

T-34 polar bear, video courtesy Sergey Kavry

The black writing will most likely mean problems with hunting for the bear, said Anatoly Kochnev, senior researcher at the Mammal Ecology laboratory at the Institute of Biological Problems of the North. Hopefully when the animal swims the paint will wear off, he said. 

‘Given there was a bit of a turmoil with polar bears at Novaya Zemlya, perhaps they took some measures ahead of the upcoming winter by catching and immobilising bears. 

‘Scientists could not do this, it could have been somebody who ‘joked’ like this. 

'I flagged this to a researcher from the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the North, and the Wrangel Nature Reserve at Chukotka’, Kochnev told Ria Novosti news agency. 

He also said that the accurate and clear writing suggested that the bear must have been sedated for quite a while.