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Meet the pizzly bears. Here are the bear hybrids that could spread across the Arctic in the future
According to scientists, there will be an increase in bears from Siberia, which are the offspring of two different species of these mammals. Polar bears may interbreed with brown bears as their areas of distribution increasingly overlap.
In 2006, Jim Martell, a hunter from Idaho, was hunting on Banks Island, located in the Arctic Archipelago. On April 16, he shot a bear near the settlement of Sachs Harbour, which he took to be an ordinary polar bear.
However, the animal caught the interest of the authorities. The bear, although at first glance it looked like a typical large mammal from the farthest north, also had long claws, a flat muzzle, brownish fur around the eyes, nose and on the paws. That is, the anatomical features of a grizzly. Since hunting a grizzly was punishable by a fine of $1,000 Canadian dollars and a year in prison, determining the animal’s species affiliation became important for all parties involved.
DNA tests of the bear were conducted in British Columbia. It turned out that Martell had killed a hybrid — a wild bear that was a cross between a grizzly and a polar bear. It was known that the two species could be crossbred in captivity. However, their offspring had never before been encountered in the wild.
