Wildlife

Endangered Polar Bears Mating With Brown Bears Because Of Global Warming?

Polar bears are mating with brown bears, producing a rare hybrid! With the climate change slowly melting the North Pole ice cap, polar bears are forced southwards where they are now beginning to live on brown grizzly bears' territories. Scientists in Canada have found these hybrids wandering in the polar circles and have named them pizzilies and grolar bears, fun portmanteaus of polar bear and grizzlies.

The first sighting, documented by Spiegel, was on Victoria Island, 313 miles from the grizzlies' normal habitat on the Canadian mainland. The scientists thought that they were looking at a polar bear, but upon closer examination, they saw that the bear had a dark stripe on its back, a shaded snout and a much larger head with a hump behind its shoulders, which is characteristic of brown bears. These bears also had longer claws, which are strange to see on polar bears. A DNA analysis reported by National Geographic confirmed that a bear in the Canadian Arctic is indeed a polar bear and grizzly hybrid. While these hybrids have happened in captivity, it is the first time that cross-breeding has happened in the wild.

These hybrids are believed to be a result of global warming and human activity. The melting polar ice cap is forcing polar bears onto dry land and road construction, mining and deforestation is pushing the brown bears north.

Pizzilies and grolar bears may look cool, but in fact hybridization is a serious matter. As these gene pools mix, the genetic diversity will decrease. Also, this may also decrease the production of actual grizzlies and polar bears as the bears waste the time and resources to produce infertile hybrids. In fact, the hybrids may pose threats to polar bears, which are known to be less aggressive.