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.
But the French half demands a good bouquet, dry with hints of fruit.
Can manbearpig be far behind???
I like Siamese cats, not because of their appearance particularly, but because they are very affectionate and people-oriented much like dogs. I like the way Abyssinians look and have had some, but they tend to ignore people; whereas the Siamese follow me around etc. much like dogs. I much prefer them to alley cats, Abbies, and Persians because of their personalities. (I'm basically a dog person.) What are Bengals' personalities like?
A Grizzed Pole?
Wonder what kind of gas mileage it got.
Me too. I preach to my children, we kill for two reasons. Defense and food. Anything else is MURDER. I was upset when reading these jackasses killed for the hell of it. Trophy... I hope God deals with them sometime or another.
Sorry to interrupt you while you are making a fool of yourself. But I thought I would help you by posting what Darwinian dumbasses have really said, instead of what fictional creationist straw men might say. Interbreeding by subspecies or interspecies variations to produce different "breeds" of dogs, for instance, or this Grizzly/Polar Bear hookup have never bothered creationists. We're not the airheads who believe reptiles evolved into birds or vice versa.
In North America the black bear was seen by Hearne swimming for hours with widely open mouth, thus catching, like a whale, insects in the water. Even in so extreme a case as this, if the supply of insects were constant, and if better adapted competitors did not already exist in the country, I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more aquatic in their structure and habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale. [Charles Darwin, Origin of the Species, original edition, 1859]
Scientists now know that Darwin had the right idea but the wrong animal: instead of looking at bears, he should have instead been looking at cows... Behind the Controversy: How Evolution Works, By Ker Than, LiveScience, 2005]
From the idiotic to the evil, Darwinism was and is a blot on true science.
Darwin spoke of the "gorilla" and the "Negro" [sic] as occupying evolutionary positions between the "Baboon" and the "civilized races of man" ("Caucasian"); viz: At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world. At the same time, the anthropomorphous apes ... will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the Negro [sic] or Australian and the gorilla. [Darwin] Thomas Huxley wrote: "No rational man, cognizant of the facts, believes that the average Negro is the equal, still less the superior, of the white man. And if this be true, it is simply incredible that, when all his disabilities are removed, and our prognathous relative has a fair field and no favor, as well as no oppressor, he will be able to compete successively with his bigger-brained and smaller-jawed rival, in a contest which is to be carried on by thoughts and not by bites." (Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews, 1871)
The Bible does not even use the word "race" in reference to people, but does describe all human beings as being of "one blood" (Acts 17:26)
We know that polar bears eat seals, and grizzlies eat Liberals...
One wonders what a hybrid of the two might favor...
But I probably should't interrupt while you're making a fool of yourself.
That may be the most uninformed statement about the Bible I've seen on this board. Learn what the biblical term "kind" means.
Oooh! Oooh! I know!
It means whatever the speaker wants it to mean. It means nothing.
Ligers are pretty much my favorite animal.
READ what I posted. I said 'sport'.
Yes, 'trophy hunting' is what sickens me.
Those who need to get-off on collecting 'trophies' shouldn't be allowed to own firearms in the first place.
>>>Neat!!!! Any pictures you can post? Sounds nice.
Actually, I do. But not on my work PC. How about I rummage through my photo album and pull one to scan. (This was in 1993, pre-computer scanners at home). I will also send ones of me with my arm bandaged from my beautiful wild creature, LOL. I got him (named him Lance) as a wee kitty. He would climb on the bed and nurse my ear lobe at night, which was sweet and horribly ANNOYING AND LOUD. One day, a friend brought in her little Llasa Apsa dog and was playing with her in the floor, yipping and my friend was playing around acting hurt. Noone thought a thing about it, but Lance defended her, attacked the pooch and about tore him up. That's when we realized Lance wasn't a kitty anymore. He was almost grown by then. When I tried to pull them apart, I got collateral damage on my arm. He was still my sweety baby, but a wild animal nonetheless and he had a taste of blood so to speak.
I sent him to live with my cousin who had a house in the woods. She set food out for him regularly and he would come eat, but spend more and more time in the woods. I figured he would be weaned from cat food and eventually find his place, or go the way of the circle of life. He stopped eating the food, but she saw him every now and then.
I miss my kitty that thought my ear was his mommy. He was stunningly beautiful with his tusps of hair on his ears and the way he ran like a jackrabbit, back legs swinging forward. He was about half the size of a bobcat/large housecat. But he was pretty.
>>>I dated a woman who was half Cajun half Cherokee for a while, and I survived. That was WILD!>>>
Wow, that sounds neat! Any pictures you can post, haha.
Seriously, I bet you have scars!
I don't care. I'm sticking to my gasoline-only bear.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.