Grizzlies And Polar Bears Are Mating And Creating 'Pizzlies' Or 'Grolars', May Wipe Out Polar Bears

Even as climate change is impacting the Antarctic in a major way, an interesting fallout is the mating activities between Arctic white bears and their brown cousins, the grizzly bears, leading to the birth of pizzlies or grolars. This blend has popped up increasingly in various parts of Alaska and Western Canada.

As nature has made grizzly bears terrestrial mammals, with polar bears being marine, they are not intended to mate. However, with the reduction in the sea ice and the increase in the tundra, both bear populations are mating and creating an entirely new breed that can reproduce.

This mating act is an option to mate with a species that is close on the evolutionary tree, opposed to not mating at all. Even though both species mated thousands of years ago, the advance and retreat of glaciers that are stoked by climate change leads to a combination that is getting widespread.

Andrew Derocher, a professor from the University of Alberta, feels that the change does not spell anything positive for the polar bears.

"I hate to say it, but from a genetic perspective, it's quite likely that grizzly bears will eat polar bears up, genetically," he said. "What we're starting to see in the Canadian Arctic is three-fourth grizzlies."

"How do they act? Probably more like grizzly bears, living on land," he added. "As climate change continues, terrestrial habitat is going to increase, and the likelihood is the habitat for grizzlies, a terrestrial bear, is going to get better. That means a longer warming period and greater food potential."

Morever, female grizzlies will begin to meet male polar bears, which will pose a threat to genetic variation in polar bears.

"I suspect at the same time that that's occurring, we'll start to see polar bears on their way out," he said.

In fact, this hybridization can lead to the final loss of a species, according to Chris Servheen, a bear biologist at the University of Montana.

"It is not a good thing for the future of polar bears that we see this hybridization occurring, and it's not going to result in some kind of new bear that is successfully living in the Arctic," he warned.