Mama Griz, and her half-breed cubs
Posted on 08/15/2014 11:39:28 AM PDT by 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?”.
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
Several links int the text ant the source
(The Alaska Daily News was sold and is now the Alaska Dispatch News)
I recommend not calling a cross between a Polar Bear and a Grizzly Bear a Pizzly Bear. Not to its face.
It could be bad in this sense; If the hybrid offspring are sterile, as most if not all hybrids are, then each hybrid born represents the end of the line for that particular bloodline....as opposed to if the male that sired the hybrid had mated with on of his own type of bear.
I guess it depends on whether the two types, Grizzly and Polar, are close enough genetically that the progeny of a “mixed mating” are still sexually potent and not sterile.
We watched a fascinating PBS/BBC documentary on the Yeti.
The DNA showed that what was the Yeti, was a cross between a polar bear and the big brown bear aka Grizzly.
Apparently, they are very mean critters.
There are environmentalists who have become racists of various species. Save the orangutan, but don’t let the Sumantran orangutan breed with the one from Boreno or else you lose the unique “races”.
Orangutan Hybrid, Bred to Save Species, Now Seen as Pollutant
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/28/science/orangutan-hybrid-bred-to-save-species-now-seen-as-pollutant.html
Most hyrbrids are sterile? I don’t think so.
One of the definitions of species is that they can interbreed. Thus, are the polar and brown bear really different species at all, or are they no different than different breeds of dog or races of people. The physical characteristics of human races vary just as much or more, and until recently they were fairly homogenus in their own areas.
Yes a donkey and a horse are going to have sterile offspring, but a Zebra and a shetland pony will produce a fertile hybrid.
Reminds me of the tigons and ligers I’ve seen, as well as the zorses and zedonks.
I guess it would depend on how many beers the bear had.
Many times, the hybrids are infertile aren’t they?
They are not endangered.
Looky dere! There was a honky bear in the snowbank somewhere up the line.
But that would be your bear to cross.
Nor are the humpbacks.
I try never to get dross with bears, bearing in mind how many beers I had of course, I might bare my soul to the bears.
Neither polar bears nor grizzlies are endangered.
I heartily agree.
Dang, he looked good in his white suit...
Depends.
There is a relatively recent breed of feline, or domestic cat, called the Savannah Cat. It is a hybrid between a male Serval cat and a domestic kitty cat.
A good place to see the difficulty in breeding these cats is www.f1savannahcats.com, owned by Michelle Mills. Her male Serval cat, Falkor, will accept female cats to breed with who are not Serval like himself. The resultant kittens are not all fertile; the male kittens all being sterile.
Michelle Mills does a very good job explaining the facts on breeding Savannah Cats. I suggest if you are interested that you read the whole site. The photos of the cats/kittens are lovely.
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