You’re in luck if you’ve ever wondered what would happen if a polar bear and a grizzly bear had offspring. A “pizzly bear” hybrid was just found by scientists, and they are becoming more and more common.
According to Live Science, “pizzly bears” or “grolers” — who take on attributes from both their polar and grizzly bear parents — have become more common due to climate change. When polar bears travel into regions where grizzly bears live, it can affect the way they mate and who they choose to couple up with.
“Usually hybrids aren’t better suited to their environments than their parents, but there is a possibility that these hybrids might be able to forage for a broader range of food sources,” Larisa DeSantis, a paleontologist and associate professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, told Live Science.
The Canadian Arctic saw the first sightings of this spectacular species in 2006 when a guy sighted a “pizzly” with “white fur of a polar bear but the big claws, humped back, shallow face, and brown spots of a grizzly.”
Since then, the precise quantity in the wild has remained unclear, but researchers who study the new hybrid claim that the population is expanding.
“Apex predators help stabilize ecosystems, and looking forward I really hope the Arctic still has a polar bear,” DeSantis said.
“But, with that all being said, could the pizzly allow for bears to continue to exist in intermediate regions of the Arctic? Possibly, yes. That’s why we need to continue to study them.”
“Pizzlys” could become a permanent feature given the numerous changes to grizzly and polar bear habitats.
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