His feet are rubbed,completey,not mud.That usually happens in Spring from walking in crusted snow.I am not sure why it would happen now.I have seen plenty of Spring bears from SE Alaska that had that.The hair looks like it was singed with a torch.
They do sometimes get singed feet. I've seen whole bears smoldering. Kinda gives a new definition of smoking bear meat...
Jack
This is a photo of one of Alaska's finest, making a living at the Hoonah dump. Yum-yum.....