It's the middle of summer, the city of Moscow is sweltering, but the polar bears in the zoo are playing in a snow shower!

"So what happens? A seal goes missing - and they throw me in jail because I fit the 'profile' of a suspect! The next thing you know... they'll tell me we all look alike! Hmmph!"

The six bears love the snow. They play in it, slide in it, and use it to clean themselves.

Snowflakes - or in this case, a fake version made from pulverized chunks of ice - come from a new high-tech compressor in the bears' enclosure. The white stuff accumulates into a mini snow mountain - giving the bears an environment that's a lot more comfortable and a little closer to their natural habitat.

It may be an improvement, but hey, it's still captivity.

For bears that, after leaving their mothers, often travel vast distances to establish their own territory in the wide open Arctic, it can't be much of a life.