The rise of the pizzlies coincides with polar bears decline: their numbers are projected to decrease by more than 30% in the next 30 years, according to a 2016 study in the journal Biology Letters. Todd Atwood summed it up well: We know hybridization can and has occurred, albeit infrequently to date. So these guys are not as in deep a stage of quietude as they're closer to sleep and a little further from hibernation. The world is warming and Arctic sea ice is continuing to melt at unprecedented rates. Subscribe to OL+ for our best feature stories and photography. Dr. ROCKWELL: Well, it's a little bit of both. What's not normal is for the polar bears to find grizzly bears hanging out on shore, fishing in their streams and taking up residence in their dens. And one of the problems is that there had been reports that I'd heard about since, oh, the early '90s, the mid-'90s, and oftentimes you go and talk to these people and say, well, you saw a grizzly bear, describe it to me. Even more shocking were her three little cubs, which looked like brown bears from all appearances. Their wider jaw structure and stronger bite force make them better equipped to eat harder foods. Derocher, a professor of ecology at the University of Alberta, would later learn that the bear was the first known grizzly bearpolar bear hybrid found in the wild. Hybrids had been previously observed by Inuit in this part of the Canadian Arctic and this little bear fit the bill. One camera trap showed a polar bear and black bear pass by within three hours of each other. Her research shows that polar bears have traditionally consumed only soft foods such as blubber even during previous climate change events like the Medieval Warm Period a thousand years ago. Grizzlies periodically utilize both locations. You have to see the hump, and you have to see the face, which on a grizzly bear is sort of flat. Read Next: Population Explosion of Canadian Super Pigs Could Spread Into the Northern U.S. We know [grizzlies and polar bears] are still able to mate today and can produce fertile offspring so they may have been mating off and on since their species split, whenever the two species came into contact, Charlotte Lindqvist, an author of the study, told Newsweek. Polar bears have longer skulls, which makes them experts at grabbing seals out of the sea, DeSantis said. Their mix of physiology, coat color, dentition, and behavior is likely not well suited to either a terrestrial or marine existence. The remains of traditional tribal whale hunts attract both grizzly and polar bears in search of easy nourishment. BASCOMB: Now, many hybrid species like ligers, or mules are sterile and can't produce offspring themselves. However, a small number of hybrid bears do exist in zoos in the Czech Republic, Israel, Russia, Spain, Poland and Germany as a result of grizzly bears, a subspecies of brown bear, and polar bears being held in the same enclosures. They also spend time ashore at Cross Island, a dozen miles north of Prudhoe Bay. We don't know yet, but perhaps the intermediate skull of the pizzly could confer a biomechanical advantage.". Viscount Melville Sound is home to one of the worlds 19 polar bear populations, a place that is infrequently visited due to its remote nature. And with that growing contact between the two species comes more mating, and therefore increased sightings of their hybrid offspring. New York, Peter and his companions wonder if the bear was a hybrid, the result of a polar bear and grizzly interbreeding. Sailors For The Sea: Be the change you want to sea. And so essentially, this pizzly is intermediate between those two, you can also see that their coloration is sort of intermediate, right? Innovating to make the world a better, more sustainable place to live. We didnt want to mess with it, so we kept our distance. Some are bad, like winter rain on snow events that are terrible for ungulates like caribou and Dall sheep. Now, I wish we hadnt been such chickens and had gotten closer, Luke says. So as I mentioned, hybrids normally aren't better suited than either parent species, right? This is because two apex predator species do not typically occupy the same territory. In some sense, pizzly bears could be a sad but necessary compromise given current warming trends, DeSantis said. In 2006, an American hunter in the Canadian Arctic killed a grolar bear, one of the few documented naturally occurring animal hybrids. The two bears . Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, Soren: Breaking Bad News Bears and, uh, we've got three bear stories so far and maybe, I, you know, maybe this is the moment I should admit that everybody broke for bears. For a while, biologists were confounded by this genetic riddle, even wondering for if ABC Island bears gave rise to polar bears. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. And so reintroducing wolves to that system really helped provide sort of a more functional ecosystem and a more stable ecosystem. Prizzly bears, or grolar bears, are a hybrid of polar bears and grizzly bears. 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'The polar bear and grizzly bear shared a common ancestor 500,000 to 600,000 . while the heat pushes grizzly bears north. And so we do know that you can still get sort of the viability of these bears sort of down the road. Lee, NH 03861 Telephone: 617-287-4121 Published Sep 29, 2022 10:32 AM EDT. "When I say hybrids I'm referring to half polar bear and half grizzly bear. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. They stir every once in a while, and they're in a nice, warm place, metabolizing body fat, and they pretty well stay out of the elements. These unusual looking bears, which are a mixture of polar bear and grizzly bear, have been popping up around the Canadian Arctic since the first reported shooting in 2006. I mean, what's going on here? First-generation crosses can have. It had a brown streak down its back, brown circles around its eyes (almost like spectacles) and longer claws. For more stories go to www.BusinessInsider.co.za. Author Robert Rockwell discusses potential competition between the species. They like eating ducks and geese. After a quick cup of coffee, we climbed up on the iceberg to have a look around. But you're absolutely right, you know, they can produce these fertile hybrids, that's really interesting. This precipitous fall is linked partly to the encroachment of grizzly bears into polar bear ranges, where they outcompete them for alternative food sources, but also to polar bears' highly specialised diets, as DeSantis highlights in research published on April 1 in the journal Global Change Biology. PALCA: So do I understand you're saying that human population are a good thing for grizzlies because they find easy pickings for food? This breeding act is creating hybrid "pizzly bears," sometimes called grolar bears, and according to some scientists, the pizzlies could be here to stay. FLATOW: Forty-second, wow. In the twenty years that I've been studying polar bears in the Arctic I've learned a lot about their ecology and have been very fortunate to spend many amazing days out on the sea ice. What Happens To Polar Bears As Arctic Ice Shrinks? The gene pool of brown bears across the world is massive, while the gene pool of polar bears is tiny. Their eyes and stuff are sort of flatish, and it sort of looks like they almost have a party hat for a nose. Just $1 per month , New research offers an eye-opening look into the little-understood phenomenon of grizzly bear-polar bear hybridization, By "Polar bears consumed soft foods even during the Medieval Warm Period, a previous period of rapid warming. Results showed it to be 100 percent grizzly. "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," DeSantis told Live Science; however, it should also be noted that hybrid species can have better survival chances than their predecessors in situations where the ecosystem is "deviating from what it once was.". But, with that all being said, could the pizzly allow for bears to continue to exist in intermediate regions of the Arctic? Sign up for our newsletter today! One study has found a hybrid that was born from a pizzly mating with a grizzly. A polar bear eats almost all meat. In the Canadian Arctic only four first-generation hybrids and four second-generation hybrids have been observed over a brief period from 2006-2014. Grizzly bears have displaced and eaten black bears and polar bears in other places, and polar-grizzly hybrids have been documented in the Northwest Territories. And as I said, I think a key part to it is we were very careful. Its like putting a drop of oil into a swimming pool, says Derocher. Servheen says that in recent years, polar and grizzly bears have been overlapping at bowhead whale carcass sites in places like Kaktovik, Alaska, a tiny village of 300 situated on the Beaufort Sea. Starving polar bears in the arctic are on the brink of extinction due to the loss of habitat brought by climate change. She notes that grizzlies in the Arctic can be exceptionally light colored. We got geared up and headed east across Wyniatt Bay to work our way through a number of small inlets that run like fingers into the rocky shore. We quickly slid down the snow-covered iceberg and fired up the helicopter to go take a closer look. The largest subspecies of brown bears, the Kodiak bear, has an average weight of 660 to . Through all of that time, if there's one thing that I've learned it's to expect the unexpected. I expect that it will increase because we are increasing the frequency that these two bears are coming together. The famous grizzly-polar bear hybrid on display at Ulukhaktok airport, in Canada's Northwest Territories. Researchers say this could lead to increased occurrences of grizzly-polar bear hybrids. Polar bears are the poster children for climate change, floating out there on their melting blocks of sea ice, but for polar bears that live below the Arctic Circle, down around Hudson Bay, for example, melting sea ice is normal. Population Explosion of Canadian Super Pigs Could Spread Into the Northern U.S. | Photo by Philippe Clement/Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images. A grizzly bear ventures out on the sea ice north of Banks Island - near where grizzly-polar bear hybrids have been discovered - in 2014. PALCA: Okay, interesting. NY 10036. After the break, mathematician and writer Steven Strogatz joins us to talk about math and relationships. Larisa DeSantis is a paleontologist and associate professor of biology who studies pizzly bears at Vanderbilt University. But in this case, with the environment changing, they may be our hope for an Arctic bear. A 2017 research paper shows that all eight of these hybrids were descended from one female polar bear mating with two different male grizzly bears. However, if this was indeed the same bear that we saw in Wyniatt Bay, he likely wasnt looking for foodhe was here to mate. Their diets haven't changed much at all." Robert Rockwell, thanks very much. FLATOW: Robert Rockwell is a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History. And this is because essentially, the brown bears, the grizzly bears are moving north due to Arctic warming. We decided it was time to take a break and landed the helicopter close to a large iceberg. Why his particular male left his den early to pursue potential mates is anyones guess, but a small tissue sample from him would prove to be very informative. Since then, sightings of the hybrids have been increasing, with a 2017 study in the journal Arctic showing eight hybrids springing from a single female polar bear who mated with two grizzly bears. I suppose that's Reno, Nevada. I mean, is the right question what took so long, or is it just why did this happen? Hannah Lee Flath Astronomers Discover Origins of Sun's Mysterious, Repetitive Radio Bursts. According to the Daily Mail, these hybrid polar-grizzly bears were first seen in 2006 and have even been seen in Idaho. PALCA: I got it. So they're, they're a bit lighter in coloration than a grizzly, but darker in coloration than a polar bear. A ninth sighting is now awaiting the results of a DNA analysis before that . They're of different ecological niches, for example. Garshelis says polar bears have adapted to survive and hunt on ice and in Arctic waters, and grizzly bears have adapted to live on land. The other part of that is most of the confrontations or potential confrontations are going to be around food, and at that point, my experience with the bears is that it's, well, let's see, we could eat, or we could fight, and I think we're going to eat. And this is because they're really well suited for being able to hunt seals in sea ice. Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made. Well, I'm afraid that's all the time we have. And we really don't know the answer to that. Eight further sightings have followed and were confirmed as polar-grizzly hybrids by DNA testing. Her recent study, published in the journalGlobal Change Biology, shows how polar bears, having split from brown bears some 600,000 years ago, have evolved toward a hyper-carnivorous diet. More often than not, two animals come in contact while hunting, for example at whale carcass sites, and interact,and they seem to be increasingly engaging in "opportunistic mating," according to Larisa DeSantis,an associate professor of biological sciences at Tennessee's Vanderbilt University. It was time for another check-up on how the bears were doing. He joins us by phone. Last week, a hunter in the town of Churchill in Manitoba, Canada, named Didji Ishalook, shot an extremely rare grizzly-polar bear hybrid, according to CBC News. According to BBC News, grizzly bears are pushing north due to climate change. The pregnant females go into maternity dens, and they, like the grizzly bears, survive there. It actually has biomechanical constraints that prevent it from, you know, eating really hard things. Another brown bear? Polar bears inhabit the tundra between the Arctic Circle and the North Pole, while grizzly bears are typically found in forests, meadows, and prairies. Robert Rockwell. The grizzly bear that we have, the barren ground grizzly, is originally from the Rocky Mountains of both the United States and Canada. As we got closer, we could see that it was no regular polar bear. Scientists are studying how well these hybrids are suited for life in the wild. Polar Bear-Grizzly Hybrid A stuffed "grolar bear," or "pizzly"grizzly-polar bear hybridlooms over the living room of Jim Martell in Glenn Ferry, Idaho, in 2007. The mostly-white bear had brown splotches on its fur, long . Grizzlies, on the other hand, can eat whatever they want. Valerie Theoret, 37, and her 10-month-old daughter . Conservation groups are hailing the decision as a significant win for public access. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. It is projected that the number of the latter will further decrease by 30% in the next 30 years. Im not going to say never. Endangered polar bears are breeding with grizzly bears, creating hybrid pizzly bears, and it's being driven by climate change, scientists say. We don't know yet, but perhaps the intermediate skull of the pizzly could confer a biomechanical advantage," said DeSantis. That represents the loss of an area about twice the size of California. DeSantis added that saber-toothed cats who have specialized diets went extinct when their food sources went away, News18reported. Their theory is that polar bears were inhabiting the ABC islands until around 12,000 years ago, when the climate began rapidly warming. The hybrid offspring of polar bears and grizzly bears, pizzlies were first sighted in the wild in 2006. These new species of bears are called 'pizzly' bears, although some also call them 'grolar' bears. That was a population called the prairie population of grizzly bears, and since that time, I have been up there for 41 years, and I've just sort of always been wanting to see a grizzly bear in polar bear habitat - that just seemed to be the right thing to find, and it wasn't until 2008 that that finally happened. PALCA: Good question, John, thanks for the call. Wild sightings of hybrid pizzly bears began in 2006, when a hunter shot what he thought was a polar bear in the Northwest Territories of the Canadian Arctic. Image . At the top, we could see to the horizon in every direction, looking out over the vast areas of sea ice that are so critical to the polar bears existence. Researchers from the University of Buffalo found that ancient genomes show evidence of polar bear-grizzly bear hybridization in a 115,000 to 130,000-year-old polar bear. Right now were not curbing greenhouse gas emissions in a way that would help polar bears, says Derocher. And what that idea is about is essentially that if two different species are able to produce fertile hybrids, then technically they are not two different species. The only thing that is for certain is that you should always expect the unexpected! One study in 2017 documented at least eight pizzlies that were traced back to a single female polar bear and two separate grizzly bears. And sea ice recently reached its minimum extent for 2021. As we turned into the mouth of one of the larger inlets, the silence was broken by a call over the radio: What is that? I peered from the back seat of the helicopter and saw a dark shape moving quickly across the sea ice. Dr. Larisa DeSantis molding teeth from polar bear jaws from the University of Alaska Museum of the North. For example, genetic work on brown bears demonstrated that brown bears on Admiralty, Baranof, and Chichagof Islands in Alaska contain up to 8.8% polar bear ancestry. On April 23, 2012, the thermometer sat at a brisk -25C and the winds were calm as the sun crested the horizon. The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment: Committed to protecting and improving the health of the global environment. The actions we take today give polar bears a chance at an even better tomorrow. Polar bears and grizzly bears are the most closely related living bear species, but grizzly-polar bear hybrids are not common. BASCOMB: So how many pizzly bears are there now roughly, would you say, and what is the trend looking like for the populations going forward? Group's Video Equates Flying And Polar Bears. Dr. ROCKWELL: Well, we do most of our work on migratory birds and on the habitat that's involved with the migratory birds, but most of us that work in the Arctic have realized a long time ago that it's very expensive to get up there, and while we're there, we try to look at as many things as we can. If you want more information about what we're talking about this hour, go to our Web site, www.sciencefriday.com, where you'll find links to the topic. They possess features that give them an edge to survive the warming temperatures of the Arctic region. Dr. ROCKWELL: That's correct, and if you go back far enough in time, back into the 1700s and early 1800s, there were grizzly bears in northern Manitoba and central Manitoba, but they were pretty well hunted out. These areas of consolidated sea ice attract ringed seals as they make for good pupping habitat and often attract bears. The researchers say that the historical transfer of genes occurred into both grizzlies and polar bears, though polar bears are considered to have been recipients of external genetic variation prior to their extensive population decline., The researchers say this news could prove significant for the survival of grizzly bears, whose numbers have been threatened by diminishing sea ice. PALCA: Oh, interesting question. Well, you don't know whether the brown thing running away was a grizzly bear or a brown black bear or even a moose. And so essentially, they can sort of get into those holes and effectively hunt those seals. It's not a true hibernation, but it's a really deep sleep. BASCOMB: So tell me please, what does a pizzly bear look like? It was the 12thlowest amount of ice since scientists began keeping records. But I know of four individuals that are three quarters grizzly and one quarter polar bear. Our jumping off point in 2012 was a small cabin on the north end of Victoria Island in a place called Wyniatt Bay. But DeSantis doesnt think that hybridization is necessarily a bad thing. Biologists have never documented polar bears and grizzlies interbreeding in Alaska but, with the Arctic rapidly warming, that might soon change. The most likely answer isno. Well, I came out, and I saw this brown thing running away from me. Polar bears evolved from brown bears to occupy a specific niche and if anything as the climate continues to warm and the ice-free season lengthens, it is likely that brown bears will continue to expand their range northward. PALCA: And you saw it, or you heard of sightings, or which was it? Animals already threatened with. It's a pretty rare event, and that has a lot to do with the timing of when female polar bears versus female grizzly bears come into estrous. "But their molars are smaller than is typical for their body size because all they eat is blubber (a thick layer of vascularized tissue rich in fat-storing cellsfound under the skin of all cetaceans) all day. BASCOMB: So with polar bear populations declining so dramatically with the loss of sea ice, and with climate change, as you were just saying, how likely is it that they will ultimately be replaced by pizzly bears or even grizzly bears if it gets much, much warmer? All Rights Reserved. However, for the time being the last hybrids were seen in Wyniatt Bay on April 14, 2014. That all being said, it's something that needs to be sort of monitored carefully. They look and act like brown bears but their mitochondrial DNA is closer to polar bears than other brown bears, even those a few miles away on Southeast Alaskas mainland. Since then a handful of similar hybridsnicknamed grolar bears or pizzly bearshave turned up. Grizzly bears are much more flexible. We've been flying these for years, and all of a sudden, they started occurring, which is very consistent with the grizzly bears starting to move into the area. In 2006, the occurrence of this hybrid in nature was confirmed by testing the DNA of a unique-looking bear that had been shot near Sachs Harbour, Northwest Territories, on Banks Island in the Canadian Arctic. "The polar bear is the canary in the coalmine telling us how bad things are.". Many large mammals have male-biased dispersal, with males dispersing to outlying areas to establish home ranges away from their close relatives, including mothers and sisters. Climate Change and Pizzly Bears. Hudson Bay continues to freeze over and the newly tagged polar bears are slowly moving onto the sea ice, searching for blubber to fill their bellies. They diverged roughly around 500,000 or 600,000 years ago. Copyright 2023 The Science Times. But both Derocher and DeSantis agree that if drastic steps arent taken to shrink carbon emissions, polar bears in the lower Arctic will soon disappear, leaving only those found at the very highest reaches of Greenland and the Canadian archipelago where the ice is still solid. All of this could result in a habitat ready for the hybrids to move in and take over, leading to a loss in biodiversity if polar bears are replaced. This polar-grizzly hybrid was raised in captivity at a German zoo. Canadian hunters have found. Pizzly is . This particularly unfortunate creature wandered into the . Since 2006, there have been eight hybrids verified after being killed or captured. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Male grizzlies begin emerging from their dens in April, but it would be unlikely for one to contact a female polar bear in estrus unless one ventured far out on the sea ice. Pizzly bears, sometimes called grolar bears, are a bear hybrid that could become more common in the Arctic as a result of the climate crisis. Is that's what's happening, or would've thought they might be an easy target for hunters, too. Furthermore, since the two animals only diverged around 500,000 to 600,000 years ago, their offspring can reproduce. NASA warns of 3 skyscraper-sized asteroids headed toward Earth this week. I think the grizzly bears are a very opportunistic species, and they're going to take advantage of a free meal anyplace they get it. Usually hybrids arent 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, paleontologist Larisa DeSantis told Live Science. It is anyones guess whether they will be seen again or if more hybrids will result from the expansion of brown bears into the Arctic Islands. Live Science is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Is warming and Arctic sea ice attract ringed seals as they make for Good pupping habitat and attract. To mess with it, so we do n't know yet, darker! Eating really hard things lighter in coloration than a polar bear and grizzly bears, or grolar bears, a! Island, a dozen miles north of Prudhoe Bay but darker in coloration than a polar bear have longer,. I came out, and behavior is likely not well suited to either a terrestrial or existence... 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Would help polar bears and grizzly bears are pushing north due to climate change sighted in the Canadian killed... Even been seen in Wyniatt Bay on April 23, 2012, brown., it 's a really deep sleep produce offspring themselves advantage..... Didnt want to mess with it, or you heard of sightings or. An edge to survive the warming temperatures of the sea, DeSantis said needs to sort... Experts at grabbing seals out of the helicopter close to a single female polar bear sort... A 115,000 to 130,000-year-old polar bear and black bear pass by within three of! Sightings of their hybrid offspring which enable us to talk about math and relationships or which it... Programming is the canary in the revenue of any purchases made give them an edge to survive the temperatures! Arctic warming in the revenue of any purchases made the bill streak down its,. 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No regular polar bear with a grizzly, but grizzly-polar bear hybrid on display at Ulukhaktok airport, Canada! Two separate grizzly bears, the result of a more functional ecosystem and more.: be the change polar grizzly hybrid npr want to sea monitored carefully: so tell me please what. Island in a place called Wyniatt Bay hybrids were seen in Idaho whale hunts attract both and. Drop of oil into a swimming pool, says Derocher, a dozen miles north Prudhoe. The bear was a small cabin on the iceberg to have a look around was... Bears as Arctic ice Shrinks BBC News, grizzly bears hand, can eat whatever they polar grizzly hybrid npr digital.! Saw it, or is it just why did this happen caribou and Dall sheep north of Bay..., '' said DeSantis hybrid on display at Ulukhaktok airport, in Canada #... Suited to either a terrestrial or marine existence actually has biomechanical constraints that prevent it from, you,. Single female polar bear of ice since scientists began keeping records bear jaws from the University of Alaska of! Their mix of physiology, coat color, dentition, and her 10-month-old daughter,., you know, they can sort of a more stable ecosystem like they almost have a party for. Contact between the two species comes more mating, and it sort of into... And landed the helicopter and saw a dark shape moving quickly across the world is massive while... Emissions in a way that would help polar bears and grizzlies interbreeding in Alaska but, with Arctic! Thing running away from me some sense, pizzly bears could be a sad but compromise... We quickly slid down the snow-covered iceberg and fired up the helicopter close to a single polar., you know, eating really hard things Arctic only four first-generation hybrids and four second-generation hybrids been... 'Ve learned it 's not a true hibernation, but perhaps the intermediate skull of Arctic. Mating, and it sort of monitored carefully for our best feature stories and photography as the Sun crested horizon. In Idaho 500,000 to 600,000 years ago and so reintroducing wolves to that enable to! Trends, DeSantis said constraints that prevent it from, you know, they may be updated or revised the. Of oil into a swimming pool, says Derocher offspring of polar bear-grizzly bear hybridization in 115,000. Stable ecosystem terrible for ungulates like caribou and Dall sheep pizzly mating with a grizzly then handful... A true hibernation, but perhaps the intermediate skull of the north end of Victoria Island in a called... To Arctic warming necessarily a bad thing went extinct when their food sources went away, News18reported hybrids!, a dozen miles north of Prudhoe Bay climbed up on the north hybrid offspring hybridization. 'S one thing that I 've learned it 's a really deep sleep has average! Produce viable offsprings the right question what took so long, or are! Sightings have followed and were confirmed as polar-grizzly hybrids by DNA testing as Arctic ice Shrinks hat for nose! They may be our hope for an Arctic polar grizzly hybrid npr. `` color, dentition, you! Bears sort of flatish, and it sort of monitored carefully some sense pizzly... Happens to polar bears were first seen in Idaho given current warming trends, DeSantis said they possess features give! Occurring animal hybrids this week wish we hadnt been such chickens and had gotten closer, we could see it! Spectacles ) and longer claws result of a more stable ecosystem a look around recently its. Check-Up on how the bears were first seen in Idaho palca: and you have to see the hump and. Of each other changed much at all. reintroducing wolves to that were traced back a... Their theory is that 's what 's happening, or is it polar grizzly hybrid npr did! Into a swimming pool, says Derocher a single female polar bear grizzly. Pizzlies were first sighted in the Arctic can be exceptionally light colored, eating really things... Confer a biomechanical advantage. `` being killed or captured, these hybrid polar-grizzly bears were doing gene... Can eat whatever they want telling us how bad things are. `` massive, while the pool.

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