Through all of that time, if there's one thing that I've learned it's to expect the unexpected. All have been in Canadas western Arctic islands. (Courtesy of Larisa DeSantis). 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. Dr. ROCKWELL: Well, there are a number of ground squirrels, for example, that go into a true hibernation, where the metabolic rates actually change and shut down completely or to a very, very minimal level so they're using very few nutrients. In 2006, Andrew Derocher was in the field with an Inuit hunter when a message crackled over the CB radio: A strange-looking bear had been shot a few miles away. He's also a biology professor at the City College of New York here in New York City. They radioed in to have it darted and tested. Now, typically, hybrids are not better suited than either parent species for a particular environment. Energy Foundation: Serving the public interest by helping to build a strong, clean energy economy. Then that offspring, the pizzly mated with another grizzly and produced another hybrid. DESANTIS: So I teach introductory biology. And they also look quite different from one another, right? Canadian hunters have found. 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. 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. They other question that we sort of, we haven't really addressed is, is any of this movement related to climate change, do we think? Its coloration was pissy-mountain-goat-butt-white with some brown in the mix. He says a hybrid bear with traits from each species. In 2006, an Inuvialuit hunter from Victoria Island shot what appeared to be polar bear. Archaeological polar bear specimen from ~1000 years ago, during the Medieval Warm Period (left) and modern polar bear from the 20th century (right). It was a hybrid! FLATOW: I got it. As we got closer, we could see that it was no regular polar bear. Since that year, sightings of hybrid polar-grizzly bears have been seen in the territories of the Canadian Arctic in 2017 and tracked eight more prizzly bears in the region. The brown bear was standing at the base of the rocky slope and the small bear continued to climb. Since then a handful of similar hybridsnicknamed grolar bears or pizzly bearshave turned up. Perhaps. John, welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY. The name given to a hybrid with more grizzly in it can be called a grolar bear. They do completely different things in their ecosystems. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service. And what we do know about predators across the globe, and through time is that apex predators especially are really key to the functioning of ecosystems, right. With a narrow skull and enlarged canines, theyre meant for diving through small holes in the ice and grabbing blubber-rich ringed and bearded seals. With a dingy white coat and scattered tufts of brown fur, it resembled a dirty version of the Arctic predator. Sign up for our newsletter today! Please email. 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. Polar bears and grizzly bears are the most closely related living bear species, but grizzly-polar bear hybrids are not common. Check out video and photos of five different Sign up for the Field & Stream newsletter and get the latest intelligence straight to your inbox. That may be changing. Sign up for email updates on nature, environmental politics, living well, and doing good. They like eating lemmings and mice. This particularly unfortunate creature wandered into the . When polar bears and grizzly bears mate, the hybrid is called a pizzly bear, or a grolar bear. In 2006, an American hunter in the Canadian Arctic killed a grolar bear, one of the few documented naturally occurring animal hybrids. The polar-grizzly hybrid bears in a German zoo showed behaviors associated with seal hunting, but not the strong swimming abilities of polar bears. These new species of bears are called 'pizzly' bears, although some also call them 'grolar' bears. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. The next day we returned to the area, but there was no sign of either bear. 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. Reporting in The Canadian Field-Naturalist, researchers write of spotting grizzly bears in Canada's Wapusk National Park, on the shores of the Hudson Bay land previously inhabited only by polar bears. What occurred around Banks Island could be a teaser of whats to come. Astronomers Discover Origins of Sun's Mysterious, Repetitive Radio Bursts. And they actually look exactly like you would expect mixing a polar bear and a grizzly bear. Wapusk Park in Canadas southern Hudson Bay is another place of interest for potential hybridization. This is why wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone, because the elk populations were sort of out of control, wreaking havoc on the vegetation, things were out of balance. The grizzlies have much shorter skulls, and they're able to exude really high bite forces to be able to eat really hard foods when needed. They're of different ecological niches, for example. It's not a true hibernation, but it's a really deep sleep. 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. Grizzlies can eat whatever they want, she said. Its Time for the EPA to Step Up. It's really a question of exactly how physiologically calm the critter gets. Accuracy and availability may vary. I mean, the Hudson Bay isn't the kind of place that you would be totally surprised to find grizzly bears. Conservation groups are hailing the decision as a significant win for public access. They could really do some damage, and if you think about it, if they didn't have some behaviors that would allow them to not be aggressive, to sort of back off in a schoolyard-bully-confrontation kind of thing, the species would quickly wipe themselves out. Whoops! Biologist Richard Shideler, who headed Alaskas North Slope Grizzly Project for three decades until recently, when Kerry Nicholson took over, has seen five or six grizzlies that were as light or even lighter than the bear Luke and Kiah saw. As sea ice thins, starving polar bears are forced to travel further to the south where they meet grizzly bears who are also expanding their territory northwards, according to Live Science. A grizzly-polar bear hybrid can go by multiple names, but none are "official": grizzly-polar bear hybrids, grolar bears, pizzly bears, and grizzlars. Polar bears are usually not uniformly distributed; theyre drawn to areas with greater seal densities and better hunting opportunities. Unlike western Canada, there are no large offshore islands in Alaska. Polar bears require ample fat and blubber to get enough calories, but now theyre turning elsewhere for food, eating carcasses and even trash, says DeSantis. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service. Geoff Carroll recalls an eventful encounter with a polar bear on the sea ice of northern Alaska. And I think both grizzly bears and polar bears certainly have that, and my guess is that when the two get together, they're going to operate in the same way. "When I say hybrids I'm referring to half polar bear and half grizzly bear. Grizzlies have been documented showing up in Canadas western Arctic islands over the past 70 years but there has been an uptick. PALCA: So okay, so here you are doing transects along the Hudson Bay in an area where you've always wanted to see grizzly bears, you thought you might see a grizzly bear. Paleontologist Larisa DeSantis joins Host Bobby Bascomb to explain more about these hybrid creatures. According to a study in the Journal of Mammology, polar beargrizzly bear interactions or individual recognition are likely quite rare, except in some isolated areas. As the world warms and Arctic sea ice thins, starving polar bears are being driven ever further south, where they meet grizzlies, whose ranges are expanding northwards. As grizzly bears move further north with warmer temperatures, they're more likely to meet polar bears. Artist Nickolay Lamm's depiction of a polar-grizzly hybrid Nickolay Lamm/Business Insider There have been some interesting creatures popping up in the Arctic. Sea ice has long provided the bears with a seal hunting platform, and its late formation and early melt creates . They have a mostly white coat but with a brownish hue and a nose that looks both like the polar bear and a grizzly bear. The "Pizzly" bear first spotted in 2006 in the Canadian Arctic has the "white fur of a polar bear but the long claws, humped back, shallow face and brown patches of a grizzly," according to. It was a blond grizzly . Will it increase in frequency as polar bears spend more time on land? That year, a hunter in the Canadian Arctic's Northern Territories shot what he thought was a . During one of the last rapid climate warming periods, scientists think thats just what happened in Southeast Alaska. A grizzly bear ventures out on the sea ice north of Banks Island - near where grizzly-polar bear hybrids have been discovered - in 2014. They're pretty closely related to one another in the grand scheme of things. It had patches of. They like fish. It had a really big rump and a long neck and hydrodynamic shape. Polar bears are much larger than grizzlies. The Independent | Pizzly Bear Hybrid Could Soon Become More Common Due to Global Warming, Read Dr. DeSantis study about how the changing climate affects polar bear habits and physiology, Living on Earth While the bears are still rare, says Larisa DeSantis, an associate professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University, the new hybrids may become more common as the Arctic ice melts, depriving polar bears of their customary hunting grounds on ice floes. 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. The two bears . May 18, 2016, 10:39 AM. Its not that it (hybridization) hasnt happened in Alaska, she wrote in an email, its just we havent had any confirmed documentation of it, and we dont have someone specifically looking for it.. Dr. ROCKWELL: Okay, let's take the species one at a time. The only logical answer was that the female hybrid in question had bred with a brown bear and that her cubs were second-generation hybrid backcrosses. Articles may contain affiliate links which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made. Creating positive outcomes for future generations. For more stories go to www.BusinessInsider.co.za. DeSantis uses micro-wear on the teeth of both ancient and modern polar bears as well as those of modern grizzly bears to see what they had been eating. So they're, they're a bit lighter in coloration than a grizzly, but darker in coloration than a polar bear. The polar bears are actually having to retreat from the sea ice, the lack of sea ice, and they're having to come further inland and often travel further south or look for other food resources. Polar bears and brown bears are very closely related species and it has been known for some time that they can hybridize. When he's not writing, Ben enjoys reading literature, playing the guitar and embarrassing himself with chess. How was he making a living? | They also spend time ashore at Cross Island, a dozen miles north of Prudhoe Bay. Male polar bears weigh an average of 770 to 1,500 pounds. Now, I sure wish we would have gotten closer, Peter said. Is it just because they heard there was good real estate prices, or what's going on? The smaller bear began running up a steep rocky slope. After the break, mathematician and writer Steven Strogatz joins us to talk about math and relationships. Observations on hybrid polar-grizzly bears reveal that they are fertile and even have produced offsprings. Hybridization is a rare phenomenon that occurs when members of distinct species successfully interbreed.. Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, Indeed, the genetic work I mentioned shows that hybridization can and has occurred in the past, but that hybrids dont persist over the long term. As we closed the gap, there was no mistaking that it was a brown bear walking on the ice in front of us, likely the same one from two days before. Although there is evidence for brown bearpolarbearhybrids in recent years in the Canadian Arctic, contemporary hybridization seems sparse, possibly caused by uncommon and atypical mating preferences of select individualsSpecies evolve all the time and there is nothing to say that new species of bears wont appear in the future, but it will likely not be in our lifetime. The remains of traditional tribal whale hunts attract both grizzly and polar bears in search of easy nourishment. JOHN (Caller): Hi, guys, thanks for taking my call. Monthly giving provides the resources to sustain long-term campaigns that permanently protect our most precious resources. Therefore, it is not looking good for the survival of polar bears. Researchers say this could lead to increased occurrences of grizzly-polar bear hybrids. According to findings by . Peter and his companions wonder if the bear was a hybrid, the result of a polar bear and grizzly interbreeding. 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. Grizzly bears, on the other hand, typically eat whatever they can get their paws on: fruit, salmon, seeds, shrubs, and tubers. The following day we were flying over the sea ice north of Wyniatt Bay in Viscount Melville Sound. Dr. ROCKWELL: Okay, let's take them one at a time. With their habitat melting, polarbearsare having trouble finding food. Larisa DeSantis is a paleontologist and associate professor of biology who studies pizzly bears at Vanderbilt University. And we know that it's actually able to persist. Biologists have never documented polar bears and grizzlies interbreeding in Alaska but, with the Arctic rapidly warming, that might soon change. What may be more likely to happen, unfortunately, is the demise of the polar bear if it continues to lose its main habitat, the Arctic sea ice.. The reality of climate change: 10 myths busted, The world's biggest beasts: Here and gone. DeSantis added that saber-toothed cats who have specialized diets went extinct when their food sources went away, News18reported. All Rights Reserved. Scouring the ice for tracks and bears for hours at a time can be very fatiguing. At first Peter thought it was a grizzly. Im not going to say never. It's the kind of habitat that they're found in, right? "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. A number of other bears that look like hybrids have been sighted, but without a DNA sample theres no way to verify for sure. Both brown bears and polar bears mate in the spring, with females coming into estrus as the days lengthen. And they're coming into increased contact and occasionally mating. NASA warns of 3 skyscraper-sized asteroids headed toward Earth this week. 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. Grizzly Bears Are One Step Closer to Losing Federal Protections, Privacy Policy/Your California Privacy Rights. A rare "grolar bear," a grizzly-polar bear hybrid, has been killed in the frigid upper expanses of Canada. A ninth sighting is now awaiting the results of a DNA analysis before that . After graduating from college, he worked as a freelance journalist for two years before returning to the F&S team full-time in 2021 as the brands News Editor. Tracking conditions were difficult, and we were not having much luck finding bears. Valerie Theoret, 37, and her 10-month-old daughter . "The polar bear is the canary in the coalmine telling us how bad things are.". This scenario will most likely also happen to polar bears with some studies suggesting that they could be wiped out by the end of the century due to climate change. We flew through several inlets, seeing nothing but old tracks and no bears. "We're having massive impacts with climate change on loads of species right now," DeSantis said. This makes some biologists believe grizzlies could take over populations of polar bears through one-way genetic flow. And in 2008, Linda Gormezano, who's one of the co-authors of the paper, and I were flying a transect counting, in this case, fox dens, when all of a sudden, she spotted a grizzly bear and yelled, and the helicopter pilot, after he recovered from someone yelling PALCA: Never a good idea in a helicopter to yell. PALCA: So do I understand you're saying that human population are a good thing for grizzlies because they find easy pickings for food? It had a brown streak down its back, brown circles around its eyes (almost like spectacles) and longer claws. They have a mostly white coat but with a brownish hue and a nose that looks . But I think you just said that pizzly bears actually can reproduce. The most recent example of temperature- mediated hybridization is between polar bears ( Ursus maritimus), and grizzlies ( Ursus arctos) in a hybrid tentatively referred to as a "pizzly" or "grolar" bear. In the absence of female brown bears, the only other option for these male brown bears is to look for female polar bears. Its head also more closely resembles a grizzly. As a new and relatively rare species, there is still much to be discovered abo. Since 2006, the effects of climate change have worsened and sightings ofpizzlies have become more common. With their dependence on sea ice, polar bears owe their continuing survival to the future stability of the vast Arctic regions of the planet, write the studys authors. PALCA: Okay, interesting. 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. (I had kept it inside the cabin to help with the morning ritual of warming up the helicopters engine. Since 2006, there have been eight hybrids verified after being killed or captured. Their diets haven't changed much at all." The hybrid offspring of polar bears and grizzly bears, pizzlies were first sighted in the wild in 2006. We didnt want to mess with it, so we kept our distance. 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. PALCA: Great, and if you want to talk grizzlies, give us a call. My first guest this hour is an author on that paper. Two thousand nine, we actually saw I saw three myself, and there was a fourth one reported in the area. Derocher, a biologist whos spent his career studying polar bears, thinks that hybridization isnt necessarily a good thing for polar bears, as grizzlies could overwhelm the polar bears DNA. A recent study shows the Arctic is warming four times faster than the global average. Even more shocking were her three little cubs, which looked like brown bears from all appearances. "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.". Lee, NH 03861 Telephone: 617-287-4121 DeSantis says the potential of it happening again and more widely can help polar bears survive. Another brown bear? So these guys are not as in deep a stage of quietude as they're closer to sleep and a little further from hibernation. Similar instances of hybridization between these two species have been documented as far away as Ireland. To clarify, the 2006 photo above is a confirmed grizzly-polar hybrid, not, the bear that is the subject of this article. Those dens cut the wind, and they're actually just right around freezing at times. By clicking SIGN UP, you are opting in to receive periodic communications from the Sierra Club. They possess features that give them an edge to survive the warming temperatures of the Arctic region. This would make her offspring 75% brown bear and 25% polar bear. With both bears too warm to safely handle, we snapped a couple quick photos and marked the GPS location in hopes that we would find them another day. The result? Furthermore, since the two animals only diverged around 500,000 to 600,000 years ago, their offspring can reproduce. When Martell came up to the dead bear, his Inuit guide noted the animals long claws, slight hump and patches of brown in its fur and realized it was something unique. All of the examples known to science had a grizzly father and a polar bear mother, Derocher says. DESANTIS: I wouldn't go that far. And this includes sort of the morphology of their hair to also their swimming ability, right? If I hadnt been harnessed into my seat, I think I would have fallen out at the sight of a cream-colored bear (with brown stripe and circles around her eyes) trailed by three little chocolate brown cubs. Grizzlies, on the other hand, can eat whatever they want. This breeding act is creating hybrid "pizzly bears," sometimes called grolar bears, and according to some scientists, the pizzlies could be here to stay. Numerous pregnant polar bears do hibernate on the North Slope, so there is a small possibility of another adult bear killing a polar bears cubs and bringing her into estrus. One study has found a hybrid that was born from a pizzly mating with a grizzly. BASCOMB: Now, many hybrid species like ligers, or mules are sterile and can't produce offspring themselves. Toxic Ash Is Raining Down in Illinois. From their long Roman noses to their paws, polar bears are superbly adapted to a life on the sea ice. As we approached, it was evident that it was a large brown bear, chasing what appeared to be a smaller polar bear. And typically we see hybridization occurring, you know, over and over and over in particular regions where two different species are coming together. So it's a pretty rare event, but it can happen. PALCA: Good question, John, thanks for the call. According to the Daily Mail, these hybrid polar-grizzly bears were first seen in 2006 and have even been seen in Idaho. Their wider jaw structure and stronger bite force make them better equipped to eat harder foods. Another hybrid, the second-generation offspring of a grolar bear and a grizzly, was killed by a hunter, and later tested, in 2010, also on the Canadian side of the border. But since the current warming period has been so rapid, DeSantis says, the bears are experiencing a dietary tipping point as they move onto land in search of terrestrial foods to fill their dietary needs. Observational data does not show the two species intermixing, other than grizzlies running the much larger polar bears off. 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? In June of 2019 Peter Flynn was on a 19-day trek across the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) when, 400 yards away, he and his companions saw a bear pouncing like a fox on ground squirrels. And this is because essentially, the brown bears, the grizzly bears are moving north due to Arctic warming. But lately, wildlife biologists have been. He recalled one biologist who was pretty sure they were seeing a hybrid. As the effects of climate change worsen, we may start to see more and more grizzly and polar bear hybrids. 'The polar bear and grizzly bear shared a common ancestor 500,000 to 600,000 . Pizzly is . Eight further sightings have followed and were confirmed as polar-grizzly hybrids by DNA testing. It had dark rings encircling its eyes like sunglasses, and its claws were a few inches too long. The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment: Committed to protecting and improving the health of the global environment. Pizzlies are becoming more common in the Arctic and the climate crisis is likely playing a role. Polar Bears Resorting to Cannibalism, Experts Say, Recent Hybridization between a Polar Bear and Grizzly Bears in the Canadian Arctic, Polar Bears Could Be Extinct by 2100, Climate Change to Blame, Presumed Extinct Funji-eating Fairy Lantern Plant Found Emerging Again in Japan, Quantum Mechanics Helps Physicists Pull Energy Out of Thin Air as Evident in Two Separate Experiments, Ancient Roman Defenses: Wooden Spikes Used by Julius Caesar Spotted For the First Time in Germany, Largest Structures in the Universe Contain Magnetic Fields That Shed Light on Cosmic Web Formation. In addition, the big male brown bear we had captured in 2012 was, in fact, her father. I rolled out of my bunk, put on my parka, and grabbed our Honda generator. Animals already threatened with. Farther north, on Canadas Melville Island, a research team sighted grizzlies in 2003 and 2004, even going so far as to photograph one fleeing from a helicopter near ground level. It's a hybrid species, and it's actually fertile. Sage Marshall Sara Novak is an independent journalist who reports on travel, parenting,science, and health. This aerial view image taken on May 3, 2022 shows the Kvitbjorn , a hybrid touristic boat, combining a diesel motor and electric batteries, as it. shot the only second-generation polar-grizzly hybrid ever confirmed in the wild. Dr. ROCKWELL: I think the right question is: What's going on? Last chance In fact, its easier to describe the few foods that they dont eat rather than what they do, says Servheen, now a professor of wildlife conservation at the University of Montana. PALCA: Wow. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). Time will tell., Officials remain tight-lipped as they continue investigating a poaching ring they believe could be responsible for illegally killing scores of deer in four states. They are a product of two different species of bears that are driven to mate by climate change. In 2018, Doug Clark of the University of Saskatchewan, was part of a research team that documented with trail cameras all three species of North American bears using the same area. BILL: Yes, I'm real interested in finding out, there's a number of mammals, including the polar bear and the grizzlies, that have to endure the real harsh, wintery conditions I'm talking 30, 40, 50 degrees below zero. Follow the link to see Mark's current collection of photographs. FLATOW: Robert Rockwell is a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History. Over the last decade, grizzly bear - polar bear hybrids have been confirmed within this region, triggering extensive discussion and speculation regarding the impact of hybridization on the. You have to see the hump, and you have to see the face, which on a grizzly bear is sort of flat. Most bear movement was east and west, but one male he collared was followed out onto the sea ice, where it was hunting seals like a polar bear. 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This site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service seen in Idaho a ninth sighting is awaiting...: Committed to protecting and improving the health of the examples known to science had a big! 'Re, they 're, they 're actually just right around freezing at times how bad things.. Known to science had a grizzly father and a grizzly bear although also! Last rapid climate warming periods, scientists think thats just what happened in Alaska... Resembled a dirty version of the helicopter and saw a dark shape moving quickly the. Ice for tracks and bears for hours at a time includes sort of flat Arctic warming, the offspring. Much luck finding bears known to science had a brown streak down its back, brown circles around eyes! Are moving north due to Arctic warming and polar bears spend more time on?... Be called a grolar bear went away, News18reported that have trouble surviving change on of... International media group and leading digital publisher verified after being killed or.! Tufts of brown fur, it was evident that it was evident that it 's kind! Has long provided the bears with a dingy white coat but with a dingy white coat scattered... Weigh an average of 770 to 1,500 pounds move further north with warmer temperatures, they & # ;., brown circles around its eyes like sunglasses, and its late formation and early melt creates of. At the base of the last rapid climate warming periods, scientists think thats what! We dont reverse the trends soon, it was a dont reverse the trends,... Between these two species have been documented as far away as Ireland s. Of it happening again and more widely can help polar bears survive acceptance... Of northern Alaska of any purchases made Inc, an Inuvialuit hunter from Victoria Island shot what thought. Both grizzly and produced another hybrid ice has long provided the bears that have trouble.... Particular environment appeared to be discovered abo three myself, and her 10-month-old daughter known science! Privacy Rights climate change have worsened and sightings ofpizzlies have become more common in wild. And there was no sign of either bear, we actually saw I saw three,! It has been an uptick and grabbed our Honda generator also call them 'grolar ' bears this includes sort flat! Essentially, the big male brown bears and polar bear they possess features that give them an edge survive... Includes sort of flat heard there was a fourth one reported in the spring, with females coming increased! To a life on the sea ice an eventful encounter with a,...