AK Beat: Should we be worried about 'grolar' bears?

Alaska Dispatch News ^ | August 15, 2014

[skeptoid]

Are hybrids -- such as polar/grizzly bear offspring -- a bad thing? Conventional wisdom suggests that when an endangered species -- such as a polar bear -- mates with a close relative -- such as a grizzly, or brown, bear -- the resulting hybrid speeds the endangered party to the affair along the path to extinction more quickly. In fact, creatures like the one described -- called “pizzly” or “grolar” bears -- already exist. But perhaps hybridization isn’t as bad as biologists feared, a possibility the New York Times explores in a lengthy Sunday magazine piece titled “Should You Fear the Pizzly Bear?”.

[GeronL]

thanks

[Tucker39]

Thank you. You answered my question. And you may well be correct about them not being sterile....but even IF they reproduce, you no longer have a grizzly OR a polar bear....just as the admixing of dogs produces schnoodles and labradoodles....nice pooches for those who wind up owning them, but they and their progeny are bereft of any purebred distinction.
Thanks again.

[Mike Darancette]

It is hard to envision a hybrid that is as successful in both environments of its gene donors.

[SgtHooper]

Slut!