As the natural habitats of polar bears and brown bears expand and intertwine, the chances for new hybrids increase. In Russia, experts suggest that pizzlies might appear in the north of Yakutia.
Pizzlies and grolars (hybrids of polar bears and grizzly bears) first appeared in the news in 2006 when a Canadian hunter shot a bear that looked rather unusual. What seemed to be a polar bear exhibited some characteristics of a grizzly bear, including patches of brown fur and longer claws. Other noticeable parameters of a hybrid can also include the changed shape of the head or the uncommon length of the neck for the species.
The names for these hybrids were given based on a simple principle: if a hybrid's father is a polar bear, it is called a pizzly; if the father is a grizzly, it is called a grolar.
In 2006, it was reported that such hybrids had been already sighted for 50 years. Interestingly, the appearance of the first bear hybrid in the news was not connected to global warming ("definitely not a sign of climate change"), whereas today's discussions refer to it as one of the main reasons for the hybridisation of bears.
It should be noted that hybridisation among bears is still a relatively rare event. Firstly, the bears must overcome geographical barriers; secondly, the “timing” must also be right: both bears must find themselves with no other choice during the mating season. Evidence from a 2017 study shows that there are only eight confirmed cases of pizzlies (or rather grolars, since all of them trace back to two grizzly fathers and a hybrid mother).
All confirmed cases of hybrids have been observed either in Alaska or in the Canadian Arctic. However, in 2022, Innokentiy Okhlopkov, the Director of the Institute for Biological Problems of Cryolithozone of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that bear hybrids might also appear in Yakutia. The reason for this could be that brown bears are expanding their habitat and have begun to "move to tundra". Some sightings of brown bears have been confirmed in the northern parts of Yakutia.
As for polar bears, their hunting areas are decreasing due to the warming and thawing of sea ice, also allowing brown bears to move northward. This overlap in habitats may lead to new instances of hybridisation.
We can already observe how the discourse surrounding polar bears has changed. In 2006, climate change was "definitely not" considered a reason for hybridisation among bears. Nowadays, it is regarded as a core reason. Moreover, hybridisation is thought to potentially lead to the extinction of polar bears, as they may be "subsumed into the general grizzly population."
The Editorial Board of the Arctic Century
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