So says Northern News, the newspaper of the Canadian NWT.
A bear, shot by an American hunter on the Arctic coast, has proven to be a cross between a grizzly and a polar bear. This is the first time such a cross has been known to happen in the wild.
It does lead to speculation as to whether, do to warmer climate, grizzlies are ranging further north and polar bears venturing south in search of food. Evolution at work, or a one off chance? Time will tell.
Shame that what could have been an interesting specimen, maybe even the ancestor of new races of bears, met with a tragic demise to satisfy someone's idea of recreation.
An ancestor to a new race of bears? Probably no more than a mule would be an ancestor to a new race of horses. Most known hybrids are either weak, sickly or infertile. There have been cases where a foreign species was introduced in the range of a related, native species. They started to cross and produced weak, hybrid offspring. Both populations of pure species suffered, because some of their breeding efforts each year were wasted to produce the unfit or infertile hybrids.
" It does lead to speculation as to whether, do to warmer climate, grizzlies are ranging further north and polar bears venturing south in search of food."
Yes, but a one-of-a-kind hybrid is hardly a real proof. You`d need extensive data through decades to show a significant change. Basically you don`t need more than one bear of each species to produce a cross, even if it is highly unlikely.
Discussion
3 repliesA bear, shot by an American hunter on the Arctic coast, has proven to be a cross between a grizzly and a polar bear. This is the first time such a cross has been known to happen in the wild.
It does lead to speculation as to whether, do to warmer climate, grizzlies are ranging further north and polar bears venturing south in search of food. Evolution at work, or a one off chance? Time will tell.
Cheers,
Dave
Guy
" It does lead to speculation as to whether, do to warmer climate, grizzlies are ranging further north and polar bears venturing south in search of food."
Yes, but a one-of-a-kind hybrid is hardly a real proof. You`d need extensive data through decades to show a significant change. Basically you don`t need more than one bear of each species to produce a cross, even if it is highly unlikely.
Guy