Posted on 05/23/2016 9:07:16 AM PDT by PROCON
BARROW, Alaska — Most Alaskans and Canadians have a bear story — tales of fearsome grizzlies, even polar bears. But a mix of the two?
They’re known as pizzlies or grolars, and they’re a fusion of the Arctic white bear and their brown cousins. It’s a blend that’s been turning up more and more in parts of Alaska and Western Canada.
Last week, a strange-looking bear was shot by a hunter in Nunavut, a remote territory that curves around Canada’s Hudson Bay. Its head was large, like a grizzly’s, but its fur was white. The bear’s genetics were not tested, but Arctic researchers seem unified in their analysis: It’s a polar-grizzly mix. A hybrid.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I thought that polar bears were a sub-species of grizz.
“Grizzlies And Polar Bears Are Now Mating”
It’s those damn wine coolers.
“If the genetic mix of brown bear & polar bear produces fertile offspring, doesn’t that mean they belong to the same species?”
Not necessarily. Species can also be defined by geographic distribution, if there is/was some sort of geographic reason (i.e. physical barrier) that prevented different populations from interbreeding. If this was the reason that polar bears and other bears separated into distinct breeding populations, and the barrier is removed, there is no reason the hybrids cannot be fertile (if it happens that they actually are fertile).
Think about coyotes and wolves. Both are defined as separate species, but able to interbreed with fertile offspring. It doesn’t mean that the resultant hybrids will result in a merging of the species; but that the occurrence of hybrids will mostly be where the populations bump up against each other. In most cases, such hybrids don’t have any special advantage over either species (and might actually have a disadvantage in breeding) and thus never become a significant percentage of the breeding population of either species. The only time the populations would merge would be when the hybrids have a distinct survival advantage, with hybrids rapidly becoming dominate in both populations. Most generally, the populations will stay separated, unless other factors intervene making one population more viable, replacing the less viable population, with the inclusion of some percentage of hybrid breeding hybrid stock.
2 thumbs up!
Are these hybrids fertile?
“An Obama Bear”
That’s just nasty....!
Explains those dog breeds that are advertised as half-wolf but said to be as hazardous as a full blooded wolf.
Interesting discussion on this thread. Thanks!
“Explains those dog breeds that are advertised as half-wolf but said to be as hazardous as a full blooded wolf.”
My wife and I are German Shepherds Dog breeders, and my wife has had some experience with wolf hybrids from before we were married.
She has told me that they can be dangerous, as (if I am remembering this correctly) they tend to have the same levels of instincts as wolves (i.e. hunting and predatory behaviors), but do not have the same level of fear of man as wolves, so the danger is compounded. Hybrids won’t be as powerful as wolves, but will still be much stronger than any dogs (especially in bite power), hence a bite from a hybrid will be much more damaging. And, to top it off, most hybrids are very nervous and fearful, and very difficult to train. They don’t make pets, and are really only suitable for someone that lives way out of town, as they are essentially wild animals...
When I was growing up in northern New Mexico, there was a “coyote pack” running around our small town, killing cats and dogs left in yards overnight, and harassing sheep herds, etc. Turns out, when they were finally hunted down, it was a pack of dogs from town that people let run loose, led by a large German Shepherd mix. There were only 1 or 2 coyotes ever found running with the pack. We had many, many coyotes back home, but they really never interacted with people at all, and never actively hunted anything remotely associated with people. It took dogs to get them over their innate fear of man, and then only a few actually ran with the dogs.
Interestingly, no one in town ever claimed any of the dogs killed...
We had a similar problem when I was growing up in western Montana in the late 60’s. Lived in a town that had outlying rural areas where people kept horses and some cattle. People used to move in from other areas, usually California and sometimes from back east. They thought the wide open spaces were great to let there dogs run free and off leash.
That was great till horses and and cattle started getting harassed and run to death by impromptu packs of dogs. That problem was solved by some land owners and a .308. After some newcomers had their dogs dropped off on their porch the problems ceased.
Not your typical bears.
So, what does that make Booboo?
Neither was Mr Spock. Like a mule he was the offspring of human and vulcan.....therefore sterile.
who’s to say that they can’t mate?...I mean, if fathers and dtrs can do it, and two homos can supposedly “mate” if that is what you call it, then who are we to judge?....
and, if that is the pic of the supposed mulatto bear, its not very impressive.....bears can have variances in the color of their fur...which is why “black” bears can be quite brown....
If you’re down and confused
And you don’t remember who you’re talking to
Concentration slips away
Because your baby is so far away
Well there’s a rose in a fisted glove
And the eagle flies with the dove
And if you can’t be with the one you love, honey
Love the one you’re with
You gotta love the one you’re with
You gotta love the one you’re with
You gotta love the one you’re with
etc. etc.
You’d be impressed if you found him in your kitchen.
I thought about that too!
Though actually I posted Yogi ‘cause I think he IS a kind of icon of normalcy, at least compared to the grisly unbearables stinking up that pool.
With all the standards of normalcy being blow up around us I’ll hang on to my Yogi and Bugs and Wile E. Coyote just the way they were.
Reminds me: must have been 30 years ago I was at a girlfriend’s place looking through the channels on a Saturday morning. Landed on the Roadrunner segment and soon began to laugh.
She came by and looked over my shoulder and sniffed. “It’s just so violent”-—which had never occurred to me, I just thought it was funny.
Harbinger of changes to come.
Ursine
LOL. Ursine is definitely what I intended to type, but my phone keyboard thinks it’s smarter than I am. Oops.
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