A grolar? A pizzly? Scientists confirm grizzly-polar bear cross

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. Hunter David Kuptana shot the bear on April 8 while it roamed the sea ice just west of Ulukhaktok, on Victoria Island. Polar bear-grizzly hybrids -- known as either "pizzly" or "grolar" bears -- are very rare. Although several suspected sightings have been made in that past few years, only one hybrid -- shot by a U.S. hunter in 2006 -- had been confirmed in the wild...more