They might not live together in the wild, but to celebrate Christmas this year polar bears and penguins have joined up in Ashford.

The animals can be seen frolicking together in the snow in the County Square shopping centre’s festive displays, alongside large white reindeer and Christmas trees.

The impressive and animated winter wonderlands - which are based on popular children's film Frozen - are part of the mall’s seasonal decorations.

However, one shopper was left a little stumped when he visited, adding that the bear would never meet the flightless bird in reality.

Dennis Garland, of Ashford, said: “You have probably noticed the excellent winter display in County Square with polar bear, reindeer and penguins.

“Unfortunately, polar bears and penguins tend not to meet in the wild because polar bears live in the Arctic and penguins in the Antarctic.

“I wonder how many others have spotted that.”

The distance between the North and South poles as the crow flies is 12,400 miles.

The management team at County Square, off Ashford’s High Street, have defended their display, however, adding that no other shoppers had mentioned the harmless mistake.

Centre manager Frances Burt said: “We asked the animation people to do us a display and that is what they came up with.

“It has a Frozen theme. But we didn’t specify what we wanted.

“It is just a nice thing for children to look at. I think it looks nice myself."

Polar bears, the biggest land-based carnivores in the world, are strong swimmers and spend most of their life around water. Their thick white coat and a layer of fat keep them warm and camouflaged in their harsh Arctic habitat.

They mainly eat seals – which, by using their remarkable sense of smell - the bears can detect in the water beneath a metre of compacted snow, and from almost a kilometre away.

Penguins on the other hand live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere, especially in Antarctica.

Highly adapted for life in the water, their wings have evolved into flippers. They feed on krill, fish, squid and other sealife and spend about half of their lives on land and half in the oceans.

Mrs Burt added: “It might not be scientifically correct, but it is a nice little Christmas display.”