“Is this alien pee?” asks Soper Creek Wildlife Rescue, a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center in Ontario, Canada, in a social media post showing a photo of blue snow. It’s not alien pee that turned this snow blue, but an average animal’s pee. Any guesses?
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The mystery animal whose pee turns snow blue is a cottontail rabbit. Why? Soper Creek Wildlife Rescue explains in the post.
“When a cottontail rabbit urinates, the pee is usually yellow, just like most animals,” writes the nonprofit in its Instagram post sharing the puzzling photo. “But certain plants in their winter diet—like bark, twigs, or buds—contain compounds that react to cold or mix with snow to create this surprising hue. Specifically, porphyrins (natural pigments in plants) can oxidize or interact with the snow’s pH to turn blue or greenish-blue over time.”
See the animal whose pee weirdly turns snow blue here: