"BJ Conner" wrote in message
oups.com...
At least the animals seem to be getting along, to bad we can say the
same for people.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/natio...rolar-bear.htm


After hearing the story on the news this morning, I googled it up...
Apparently this is the first known hybrid in the wild. Although not common,
in captivity they have breed the two species. I didn't realize any bear
species other than the giant panda and the spectacled bear, could possibly
interbreed.

Interesting,
JT

Brown Bear/Polar Bear Hybrids
a.. Since 1874, at Halle, a series of successful matings of polar bears
and brown bears were made. Some of the hybrid offspring were exhibited by
the London Zoological Society. The Halle hybrid bears proved to be fertile,
both with one of the parent species and with one another. Polar bear/Brown
bear hybrids are white at birth but later turn blue-brown or yellow-white.
a.. In 1936, a male polar bear accidentally got into an enclosure with a
female Kodiak (Alaskan Brown) bear at the US National Zoo resulting in three
hybrid offspring. One hybrid was named Willy and grew into an immense
specimen. The hybrid offspring were fertile and able to breed successfully
with each other, indicating that the two species of bear are closely
related.
a.. In a 1970 National Geographic (Vol 137:4, April 1970) article, "White
Tiger in My House", Elizabeth C. Reed mentions being foster mother to 4
hybrid bear cubs from the National Zoological Park in Washington where her
husband was director.
a.. DNA studies indicate that some brown bears are more closely related to
polar bears than they are to other brown bears, raising whether they are
truly separate species. All the Ursinae species (i.e., all bears except the
giant panda and the spectacled bear) appear able to crossbreed.
a.. In 2006 a unusual looking polar bear shot by a sports hunter in the
Northwest Territories, was shown to be a Grizzly/Polar Bear Hybrid by DNA
testing. This is thought to be the first recorded case of interbreeding in
the wild. [1]