Grolar Bears and Narlugas: Rise of the Arctic Hybrids
By Bruce Barcott
December 15, 2010
Science & Technology Nature & Wildlife
Climate change appears to be igniting a sexual revolution among Arctic mammals -- and that’s not good news for some endangered species.
In 2006 an American hunter shot an animal in the far north of Canada’s Northwest Territories that shared characteristics of a polar bear and a grizzly. Earlier this year, a similar bear was killed less than 200 miles away, and DNA tests confirmed it was a mixture of the two species. The "grolar bear" thus joined a growing list of cross-species couplings -- beluga whales and narwhals, right whales and bowhead whales, various seal mixtures -- all confirmed to varying degrees by scientists in the Arctic over the past two decades.
What’s going on here?
In the December 16 issue of Nature, three American researchers argue that global warming is encouraging the formation of hybrid offspring among Arctic mammals. "The rapid disappearance of the Arctic ice cap is removing the barrier that’s kept a number of species isolated from each other for at least ten thousand years," says the article’s lead author, University of Alaska evolutionary biologist Brendan Kelly. That’s leading to some unusual pairings that could have dire consequences for endangered species in the Arctic.
http://www.onearth.org/article/grolar-be...ic-hybrids
By Bruce Barcott
December 15, 2010
Science & Technology Nature & Wildlife
Climate change appears to be igniting a sexual revolution among Arctic mammals -- and that’s not good news for some endangered species.
In 2006 an American hunter shot an animal in the far north of Canada’s Northwest Territories that shared characteristics of a polar bear and a grizzly. Earlier this year, a similar bear was killed less than 200 miles away, and DNA tests confirmed it was a mixture of the two species. The "grolar bear" thus joined a growing list of cross-species couplings -- beluga whales and narwhals, right whales and bowhead whales, various seal mixtures -- all confirmed to varying degrees by scientists in the Arctic over the past two decades.
What’s going on here?
In the December 16 issue of Nature, three American researchers argue that global warming is encouraging the formation of hybrid offspring among Arctic mammals. "The rapid disappearance of the Arctic ice cap is removing the barrier that’s kept a number of species isolated from each other for at least ten thousand years," says the article’s lead author, University of Alaska evolutionary biologist Brendan Kelly. That’s leading to some unusual pairings that could have dire consequences for endangered species in the Arctic.
http://www.onearth.org/article/grolar-be...ic-hybrids
The world is a dangerous place to live - not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don't do anything about it.
- Albert Einstein
- Albert Einstein
