To quote Ian Malcolm https://t.co/wXrDcGwbAw pic.twitter.com/4bkqYpo1Ov
— Ashe Schow (@AsheSchow) May 24, 2016
Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated polar bears dealing with a loss of habitat due to global warming do it … with grizzlies, apparently:
Come for the insane headline, stay for the really interesting read https://t.co/oYL8Vwgfvw via @karinbrulliard
— Ishaan Tharoor (@ishaantharoor) May 24, 2016
And the outcome is an awesome new hybrid bear known as either a “pizzly” or a “grolar”:
BARROW, Alaska — Most Alaskans and Canadians have a bear story — tales of fearsome grizzlies, even polar bears. But a mix of the two?
They’re known as pizzlies or grolars, and they’re a fusion of the Arctic white bear and their brown cousins. It’s a blend that’s been turning up more and more in parts of Alaska and Western Canada.
Last week, a strange-looking bear was shot by a hunter in Nunavut, a remote territory that curves around Canada’s Hudson Bay. Its head was large, like a grizzly’s, but its fur was white. The bear’s genetics were not tested, but Arctic researchers seem unified in their analysis: It’s a polar-grizzly mix. A hybrid.
Here’s a picture of the majestic creature (although it’s dead):
According to the article, hybrid bears are also better suited to deal with a warming planet as the DNA of the land-based Grizzly is winning out over the marine-based Polar Bear:
“What we’re starting to see in the Canadian Arctic is three-fourth grizzlies,” Derocher said, referring to the offspring of 50-50 hybrids that then mated with grizzlies. “How do they act? Probably more like grizzly bears, living on land. As climate change continues, terrestrial habitat is going to increase, and the likelihood is the habitat for grizzlies, a terrestrial bear, is going to get better. That means a longer warming period and greater food potential.”
The hybrid sounds perfectly suited to this new world, right?
Climate change = post-apocalyptic predators. Dire wolves next? https://t.co/RbkEWkEGw3
— Jonah Letovsky (@jonahletovsky) May 24, 2016
So, why aren’t the enivro-nuts celebrating? This is really good news as it shows that the descendants of today’s polar bears will live on using the exact same mechanism modern humans used to defeat the Neanderthal — sex.
From Eric Worrall writing at “Watts Up With That“:
My question: why aren’t greens celebrating this find, as evidence that Polar bears are capable of rapidly changing their phenotype, in response to radical changes to the polar climate?
Hybridisation is a common form of adaption in the natural world, which allows the rapid spread of important survival traits amongst diverse populations. Modern humans carry the genetic fingerprint of frequent hybridisation, including evidence of likely cross breeding with Neanderthals. Some scientists even claim hybridisation was not only important, but essential to the rise of modern humans.
It’s Darwin at work and the global-warming alarmists want to stop it.
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