ULUKHAKTOK, N.W.T. — An odd-looking bear shot a few weeks ago by an Inuit hunter in the High Arctic is a rare grizzly-polar bear cross, scientists have confirmed. Moreover, the animal — with the creamy white fur of a polar bear, but with the big head, long claws and ring of brown hair around its hind common to the grizzly — may be the first recorded second-generation "grolar bear" found in the wild, said the N.W.T. Environment and Natural Resources Department in a news release. "A wildlife genetics laboratory has since conducted DNA testing on the samples, and the results of the testing point to the animal being a second generation hybrid bear which resulted from the mating of a polar/grizzly bear female with a male grizzly bear," said the release.
A warming climate has prompted hungry grizzly bears to increasingly move north, encroaching on polar-bear turf, according to experts. That migration means the two types of bear are expected to come into contact more often, competing for territory and, potentially, mating.
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