Penguins and Polar Bears - Mystery solved!

It seems to be a common occurrence these days that I see polar bears and penguins pictured together despite the fact that these two animals do not live together. Polar bears of course residing in the arctic, while penguin species live only in the southern hemisphere.

Just two weekends ago I saw an Eskimo play set at Ocean State Job lot featuring an arctic family and various arctic animals: a walrus, a seal, a polar bear, and a penguin. Yes, a penguin. I would think a walrus would have been enough to keep the kids interested. Just last year Coca-Cola had an ad campaign featuring polar bears and penguins sharing a Coke that stirred up some rumblings in the science community, like this blog entry over on The Intersection.

However, I just saw a new t-shirt for sale at Threadless:

(follow the picture link to see a larger version)

This obviously puts the issue to rest. As we can see, penguins and polar bears can share a Coke (or a picture), but only if the penguins are on holiday to the north pole. Being flightless birds however, who knows how they get there - perhaps they've started an airline?