How Did the Creator of This "Snow Bear" Make Its Belly Button? A Few Theories

An anonymous artist, or group of artists, have left a lot of people in Montreal and all over the internet scratching their heads.

A good work of art has the ability to leave you speechless and sometimes, even dumbfounded. "How did they ever come up with this? How did they even achieve it?"

It's the feeling you get when you see the Mona Lisa, or Starry Night, or this Snow Bear.

The Lachine Canal in Montreal, Canada, was frozen over and covered with snow. Because Canadians possess a superhuman resistance to cold and thrive in an icy climate, someone thought it'd be fun to make a giant snow bear on the canal.

But where it gets interesting is when you look at this added detail in the middle.

With the right clothes and snow shoes, outlining a bear with your feet is a pretty straightforward task. But throwing in a belly button? That's no easy feat. Especially when you consider how large the bear is. There are about six feet, give or take, between the outline of the bear and its navel.

Jumping that, while in snow and decked out in winter clothes, would be a ridiculous feat of athleticism.

It's almost as if whoever made it knew it would get some attention, too. The cute outline of the animal was created near a footbridge that crosses the canal, so passersby were treated to a perfectly Instagrammable view of the snowy creation.

In addition to wonderful photo opportunities, the bear also spawned some interesting theories about how the belly button came to be.

It's the simplest conclusion, but there's a lot to consider. The iciness of the canal, coupled with the fact that jumping on ice is a lot different than walking on it, make this a real act of derring-do. Whoever jumped would have to be seriously confident in their ability to land lightly. Plus, that's a really, really precise jump.

This is Canada, after all, where every natural-born citizen is given a government-issued hockey stick at birth. And the curvature of the stick, held out in front of whoever was making the bear from the outlined area, could've lightly tapped it to make the belly button.

Other people proposed it could've also been either a broom or some other weird, personally crafted devices.

After noticing the "belly button" indents were already in the snow, the clever artist decided to draw around this small little detail, which was used as inspiration for the now-viral work of art. The problem with this idea is that the timing of snowfall doesn't add up. The indents of the belly button are about the same depth as the rest of the bear's outline, and all the art would've had to have been made once it stopped snowing.

But it could still very well be true.

Or did four perfectly lobbed snowballs form the belly button? Some would think whoever threw them would need impeccable aim. Again, I'd like to remind everyone this is Canada and snow is part of their DNA. The kind of person who painstakingly makes a giant snow bear is probably capable of throwing a mean and accurate snowball.

A little fly-down, tap-tap action, maybe? Or perhaps someone attached a ball to the drone and expertly flew it so it would touch the ground?

People had all sorts of other ideas, too: aliens, weighted boots on a long pole. Whatever it is that caused this snow-obsession, it's pretty darn cute and I'm glad someone out there took the time to actually make it and enchant us so. (h/t cbc)