‘Grolar’ bears arrive as Arctic ice retreats
CANADA
When a young hunter in the remote north of Canada shot what he thought was a small polar bear earlier this month, he never anticipated that his kill would earn him global attention.
The animal, whose fur is sitting in Didji Ishalook’s freezer waiting to be stuffed, turned out to be no ordinary bear, and photos that Ishalook shared on Facebook have sparked international scientific interest.
The animal had the mostly white fur of a polar bear but brown paws and the big claws and larger head of a grizzly – the classic hallmarks of an elusive mixed breed called a pizzly or grolar.
‘‘They’re saying it’s a grizzlypolar bear hybrid,’’ the 25-year-old told The Toronto Sun from his home in Arviat on Hudson Bay.
Genetic tests will take place but ‘‘it’s 99 per cent sure that it’s going to turn out to be a hybrid’’, said Ian Stirling, a scientist with the environment department of Canada.
Polar bears and grizzlies have interbred in zoos, but the first recorded pizzly in the wild was found only in 2006, when an American hunter shot it in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Another was killed on Victoria Island in 2010, and provoked even greater interest because it was the offspring of a hybrid.
Pizzlies featured in Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood’s 2013 fable MaddAddam, in which their migration south was an indicator of environmental decay.
Now real-life sightings are becoming more common as the Arctic warms at twice the rate of the rest of the planet, driving the two species closer together in the hunt for food.
In Hudson Bay there have been documented cases of polar bears and grizzlies feasting on a whale carcass together.
In every case, pizzlies have been the offspring of a male grizzly and a female polar bear, because the male grizzly roams to establish territory. Male polar bears need ice to find prey and tend not to stray into grizzly habitats.
The hybrid may ultimately become a threat to the polar bear. Grizzlies are more numerous and their territory is expanding, meaning that they could dilute the polar bear population until it fades away altogether.