Posted on 05/11/2006 6:57:25 AM PDT by VadeRetro
IQALUIT, Nunavut - Northern hunters, scientists and people with vivid imaginations have discussed the possibility for years.
But Roger Kuptana, an Inuvialuit guide from Sachs Harbour, Northwest Territories, was the first to suspect it had actually happened when he proposed that a strange-looking bear shot last month by an American sports hunter might be half polar bear, half grizzly.
Territorial officials seized the creature after noticing its white fur was scattered with brown patches and that it had the long claws and humped back of a grizzly. Now a DNA test has confirmed that it is indeed a hybrid - possibly the first documented in the wild.
"We've known it's possible, but actually most of us never thought it would happen," said Ian Stirling, a polar bear biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service in Edmonton.
Polar bears and grizzlies have been successfully paired in zoos before - Stirling could not speculate why - and their offspring are fertile.
Breeding seasons for the two species overlap, though polar bear gets started slightly earlier.
... and got mountains that never forget."
Out for a bit.
not trying to be rude, but you are agreeing with what Im saying.
So Im confused.
If you're going out to the woods to shoot a deer to eat it, I don't have a problem with it.
but just to kill something for fun???? Like these aholes that go on safaris to shoot elephants, lions, water buffalo??? They're aholes.
Sorry...we seem to agree.
oh... you're a pussy....never mind....missing the phallic thingy you're supposed to have.
sorry, don't drink beer while I hunt, most hunters don't.
Hunting cuts down in the overpopulation of the deer, lets me spend time with my son showing him firearm safety, target acquisition, effective marksmanship, field stripping and harvesting of meat, outdoorsmanship... and basically how to survive in the outdoors if he needs to... my daughters learn the same with shotguns.
Funny thing about firearm skills, use it or loose it. If my kid joins the armed forces, I want him to at least respect what a weapon will do and it's capabilities.
...... or I could just let him pretend that meat is made in the back of the grocery store....
you sound like you didn't get invited to hunt... you should try it... you don't have to stay in a blind, go hiking in the bush overland, kill what you want, eat what you kill or just sit there and complain about something you don't have a clue about...
those a-holes usually donate the meat to the local villages that really appreciate the food. But who am I to put facts in the way of your unbiased opinion.
A hybrid? I wonder what kind of mileage he got.
I don't have a bit of a problem with what you stated. Let me be clear on that.
Its the gd 'trophy' hunters that I have a problem with.
I sincerely believe those folks are not mentally stable.
No, wait, people might think that he was gay or something.
And, he wouldn't be happy half of the time.
TS
give me a break. they don't 'donate' anything. its a by product of their actions if it happens at all.
those aholes just get off on the NEED to kill something - cause its 'fun'.
pisses me off everytime I see these jerks smiling over the carcass of some dead elephant when I open my various gun magaizine every month.
Gonna go down with the ship, huh? Be my guest. I notice you didn't even attempt to deal with my second set of quotes.
Was the mother or the father the polar bear?
Need to know in order to determine if the rape was a hate crime.
that is funny.... is it photoshopped???
'cause its fun? what about because its also a necessary service? in order for people to live in africa, large, dangerous animals have to be killed, else they either die of starvation or kill people. how is this different from coyote or prarie dog hunting? you don't eat the meat, but you kill them before they destroy everything in sight.
"Especially when one party has weapons and the other doesn't."
Yeah, like claws and teeth? And a 4 to 1 size advantage?
I don't sport hunt, but I've done my share of killing predator animals (I ranch), including mountain lions, to use one example. They are very fast, mean, vicous killing machines. And if you don't do it right, you are toast.
Witness:
http://www.break.com/index/huntlion.html
(They were hunting an African lion that got on a ranch and was killing calves.)
Canada issues permits to keep the population of bears down, so they don't show up in Toronto suburbs. There is a reason for it all.
huh?... well yeah, getting meat is a "byproduct" of hunting.
And yes, they do donate the meat to local villagers and pack some away for transport home if they feel like it....Almost all hunts of that kind are "guided", cause there are not too many trophy hunters that have access to Africa with firearms unless they are on sponsored "hunts". Most of the elephants you've seen in your gun mags are probably culling out the old bull from a preserve or state sponsored sanctuary or rogue bulls threatening a village. Elephants kill people as do hippos, crocs and other animals.
Tracking and hunting is different from having a caged animal released and shooting it at point blank range. Having to fire a bolt action rifle at a charging bull elephant in spite of what you may "think" is dangerous. Guides, aides and sometimes hunters get killed.
African Big Game hunting.. Fun?... yeah, I guess. Very expensive and not my cup of tea, but I'll admit to killing a bear, harvesting it's meat,using the fur for a rug and generally getting an adrenalin rush from doing the killing and not getting killed. From what I can gather from personal experience (speaking only for me) the sense that I was near a bear that could kill me and I killed it instead was very......gratifying. I guess it's just the way I'm made up. Some guys like fishing, some like checkers, some golf, some .... interior decorating... that's what makes our country great.
As far as banning hunting, the harmless little deer carry disease, cause lots of auto damage and starve to death when they overpopulate. Harvesting some of them is a nice way to control that, I think.
No, it's the real thing! I believe the photo was taken at the Democratic National Convention in '04.
So it was a mutt?
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