Hybrid Bear

Posted on May 11, 2006 by sammy

This is interesting. A hunter shot a bear which turned out to be the offspring of a pairing between a Grizzly and a Polar bear.

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2 Responses to Hybrid Bear

  1. Scott says:
    May 12, 2006 at 3:27 pm

    Definition of species: “A species is a group of organisms that can interbreed in nature to produce a fertile offspring. Stated in another way, species are reproductively isolated groups of populations. Organisms classified in the same species have very similar gene pools.”

    So I guess Polar and Grizzly bears are really just different breeds of bears!?

  2. Glenda says:
    May 18, 2006 at 9:32 am

    So taxonomically bears are classified as follows and the grizzly and polar bears are 2 different species:

    Kingdom: Animalia

    Phylum: Chordata

    Class: Mammalia

    Order: Carnivora

    Family: Ursidae

    Genus: Ursus

    Species: Arctos (grizlly)
    Species: Maritimus (polar)

    From what I found on the web (so take with the appropriate amount of salt) phylogentic evidence indicates that the grizzly bear and polar bear diverged from a common ancestor in the Pleistocene epoch (2 million years ago). Only overlap of these 2 species today is western Canadian Arctic. Crosses between the two species produce fertile hybrids.

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