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Clisset, Christine. (2010) Pizzly Bears-When polar bears and grizzlies breed, they can produce fertile offspring. Why can't other species? Slate
Available online at:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2010/05/pizzly_bears.html
Höflinger, Laura (2012) In the Land of the Pizzly: As Arctic Melts, Polar and Grizzly Bears Mate Spiegel Online
Available online at:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/polar-bears-and-grizzlies-producing-hybrid-offspring-as-arctic-melts-a-859218.html
Struzik, Ed. (2012) Unusual Number of Grizzly and Polar Bears Spotted in High Arctic, e360 digest.
Available online at:
http://e360.yale.edu/digest/unusual_number_of_grizzly_and__hybrid_bears_spotted_in_high_arctic/3567/
Global Warming and the Great Pizzly Bear!
It
seems that now, and for the last few years, one of the biggest issues in
science is global warming. Global
warming affects multiple facets of biology including animal diet, behavior, and
physiological processes. Global warming has been pushing animals to adapt in
many ways.
A
new phenomenon being observed in the Arctic/ Northwest Territories are Pizzly
or Grolar Bears.
Corbis
A bear believed to be a "pizzly," a hybrid between a polar bear and a grizzly bear.
Normally, Grizzly Bears and Polar Bears rarely cross paths,
and if/when they do, it is not during mating season. Polar Bears typically
spend their mating season on sea ice, mating between April and May (wikipedia),
where Grizzly bears mate between May and early July, a little bit further south
(and they don’t go on the sea ice!).
20 years ago, Grizzly bears would not dare venture to the
Far North to invade Polar bear habitat, because it was far too cold and
unnecessary, but global warming has increased temperatures noticeably for these
bears (Struzik, 2012). It has also decreased the amount of sea ice, and how
long the sea ice is available to polar bears to hunt and mate, forcing them
further south to find and gather food. This has caused Polar bears and Grizzly
bears to cross paths during mating season, and allowed them to interbreed.
Because Polar Bears and Grizzly bears have fairly common
ancestry (Clisset, 2010), Pizzly bears, or Grolar Bears, are sexually viable – but
they do not necessarily have hybrid vigor. They tend to hunt seals the same way
polar bears do, but their longer claws are not very good for walking on the
ice. The offspring tend to be less fit than their parents, because they do not
have the same specializations to the environment that the parents display. At
this point, there seems to be very little chance that the pizzly bears will
outcompete their parents, because only a very small percentage of Polar Bears
and Grizzly Bears actually share habitat – solely the Polar Bears venturing far
south and the Grizzly Bears venturing far north (Struzik, 2012)
Hybrids are not a protected species, because they are not considered
polar bears, but they are especially "prized" possessions for hunters, due to their rarity (Höflinger, 2012). This raises the same argument that we discussed in class. If
hybrids are carrying polar bear genes, then why are they not protected as well?
Word Count:
422
Good blog! I like the names for the hybrids haha. It seems odd that a Grolar bear wouldn't be provided some sort of protection status. What morphology is typically dominant in the hybrids? I never understood why as soon as something is rare, there is a rush to murder it as a trophy. Like that tasmanian tiger in "The Hunter". The whole mentality of "hey thats the last of something, hurry up and kill it to assert your manly dominance!" seems very ass backwards to me.
ReplyDeleteNice post! I always find hybrids so interesting. Chad has a great point though... there is such a terrible mentality associated with trophy hunting.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! We should make the Pizzly Bear the official mascot of global warming.
ReplyDeleteI can sort of understand why the Pizzly Bear isn't protected, especially if it is less fit that its parents. However, the fact that hunters want them means that there could possibly be a few mistakes made, and polar bears shot instead, which is more worrisome.
ReplyDeleteHm... but on the other hand if Pizzly bears are less fit than their parents, wouldn't it be good to figure out ways to prevent this gene flow from occurring?
ReplyDeleteVery cool blog. The Pizzly bear seems like it would be a mega version of both bears. It's weird to think that it is less fit.
ReplyDeleteReally interesting post. I like the ethical questions you raise in the last paragraph and the issues this species faces. I wonder if the Pizzly/Grolar bear will become more adapted to the environment if the globe continues to warm. Then we might lose polar bears altogether.
ReplyDeletePROTECT THE PIZZLY BEARS! Great point Chad.
ReplyDeleteInteresting! Nice blog. Pizzly bears should be protected
ReplyDeleteInteresting! I wonder just how many of these Pizzly bears there are. Are there any clear numbers yet?
ReplyDeleteBryn Zomar had a fascination with these in Vertebrate! Not sure the implications these guys will pose on Polar Bears and Grizzly Bears. I wonder if the hybrid is more viable?! I believe they should be preserved as well. It is important to protect every aspect of any species in question... think of Lonesome George, who they tried to breed the ancient tortoise lineage back out of. Doesn't matter how little Polar Bear/Grizzly Bear DNA is in the genetics, every little bit could count!
ReplyDelete