Pizzly or grolar bear: grizzly-polar hybrid is a new result of climate change

Grizzly bears in Alaska and Canada are moving north as their environment warms, bringing them into contact with polar bears located on the coastline

Oliver Milman

Wednesday 18 May 201618.19 BST

Last modified on Wednesday 18 May 201621.43 BST

Climate change is known for swelling the oceans and fueling extreme weather, but it may be also causing the curious emergence of a new type of bear in the Arctic.

A bear shot in the frigid expanse of northern Canada is believed to be a grizzly-polar bear hybrid, a consequence of the increasing interactions between the two imposing bear species.

Hunter Didji Ishalook originally thought he’d shot a small polar bear but he said it was a “half-breed” – a position backed by several bear experts. The bear was shot near the small community of Arviat, located on the Hudson Bay within Canada’s Arctic region.

“It looks like a polar bear but it’s got brown paws and big claws like a grizzly,” Ishalook said. “And the shape of a grizzly head.”

Sightings of this hybrid species – which has been dubbed either a “grolar bear” or a “pizzly bear” – have become more common in recent years as the Arctic has warmed at twice the rate of the global average.

Grizzly bears found in Alaska and Canada appear to be moving north as their environment warms, bringing them into contact with polar bears located on the coastline.

Polar bears are spending more time on land as Arctic ice diminishes, causing them to lose body weight and decline in numbers as they are unable to hunt for favored prey such as seals.

“The combination of warmer temperatures and vegetation growth means there is more overlap between the species and I’d expect that overlap to increase,” Chris Servheen, a grizzly bear expert at the University of Montana, told the Guardian.

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