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More signs of Arctic change?

by on April 15th, 2010

Here’s an interesting item from way up north.

Last week, on Victoria Island in Canada’s Northwest Territory, a hunter shot what may be a rare grizzly-polar hybrid.

Though other sightings have been reported, if DNA testing confirms the parentage, this would only be the second “pizzly” or “grolar” confirmed in the wild.

Experts are trying to puzzle out the circumstances that would bring grizzly and polar bears together.

Read more in this article by Ed Struzik, and see a photo of mounted remains of the first grizzly-polar bear cross, shot in 2006 by U.S. hunter Jim Martell.

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5 Comments on “More signs of Arctic change?”

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  1. Paul says:
    April 15, 2010 at 2:56 pm

    Interesting story.Brian and others, you may find this Nature article from PBS interesting. It outlines the relationship between Polar Bears and Brown Bears (a group which grizzlies belong to), It also mentions interbreeding between Grizzlies and Polar Bears. I wonder if the hybrid has all the scary characteristics of each “species”. That could be one SCARY bear to run into out there!http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/arctic-bears/how-grizzlies-evolved-into-polar-bears/777/

  2. Anonymous says:
    April 15, 2010 at 4:30 pm

    An urge to mate brought them together. Since the polar bear population has been growing. They probably are expanding their range to grizzly territory.

  3. Lucy Martin says:
    April 15, 2010 at 5:52 pm

    The thing is, polar bears and grizzlies prefer different habitats (sea verses land, for example) and don't usually mate with each other. Is the polar bear population increasing? Decreasing? Support for both possibilities can be found, though much of it seems tied to a political agenda.A good chart on the question of polar bear population trends can be found here.

  4. frank gaffney's eyebrow says:
    April 17, 2010 at 8:49 am

    Thank you Lucy, for an interesting look at what MAY be happening in the Arctic concerning grizzly and polar bears "getting it on."Upon reading the article by Ed Struzik, I found some scepticism expressed about these dead bears being hybrids. There is the thought that these animals are just exremely pale grizzly bears. I await the DNA testr results which should be out this week.However, maybe we could impose bear segregation, making it illegal for them to be mixing up the species (the ghosts of Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms gave me that idea).And my good friend, Sarah P., who has been known to kill moose and bear, says that all of this talk about climate change and wierd animal hybrids resulting, is "nothing but a bunch of Commie conceits meant to convince Conservatives that a crisis is being created due to Capitalism's demand for ever greater consumption."Well, she didn't quite say it like that…ok, she actually said "it is a Commie lie that it out to break our Capitalist democracy."Which we all know is much better than a Communist democracy.

  5. Polar-grizzly update « The In Box says:
    May 5, 2010 at 9:15 am

    […] A  post last month described what may be only the second polar-grizzly bear confirmed in the wild. […]

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