DNA analysis has confirmed that an odd-looking bear shot and killed by a hunter in Arviat, Nunavut last month wasn’t the offspring of a polar bear and a grizzly bear — it was a blond grizzly.
All the hubris last month about polar bear x grizzly hybrids, based on an unusual-looking bear killed near Arviat, has turned out to be wishful thinking by those who'd like to blame everything to do with polar bears on climate change. An awful lot of "experts" now have egg on their faces. That "hybrid" was just a blonde grizzly, as I warned it might.
According to one report, Nunavut wildlife manager Mathieu Dumond said:
"Some otherwise pretty renown bear biologists jumped on the hybrid bear story without even knowing what they were talking about," Dumond said.
"I think it was something blown out of proportion, with the wrong information to start."
Gee, ya think? CBC ran a story too. But the CBC don't really admit (see below) that they were the first out of the gate on this story and started the media madness. It was the CBC that relied on the opinion of a black bear expert from Minnesota (who likely only saw a picture) - but since he was willing to say it was a hybrid and that its presence was a sign of climate change, they went with it.
See "Grolar or pizzly? Experts say rare grizzly-polar bear hybrid shot in Nunavut: Expert says interbreeding may be happening more frequently due to climate change (CBC 18 May 2016)."
Let's hear the other side of that:
"Dr. Crockford writes:
All the hubris last month about polar bear x grizzly hybrids, based on an unusual-looking bear killed near Arviat, has turned out to be wishful thinking by those who'd like to blame everything to do with polar bears on climate change. An awful lot of "experts" now have egg on their faces. That "hybrid" was just a blonde grizzly, as I warned it might.
grizzly-polar-bear-hybrid_arviat-2016-didji-ishalook
According to one report, Nunavut wildlife manager Mathieu Dumond said:
"Some otherwise pretty renown bear biologists jumped on the hybrid bear story without even knowing what they were talking about," Dumond said.
"I think it was something blown out of proportion, with the wrong information to start."
Gee, ya think? CBC ran a story too. But the CBC don't really admit (see below) that they were the first out of the gate on this story and started the media madness. It was the CBC that relied on the opinion of a black bear expert from Minnesota (who likely only saw a picture) - but since he was willing to say it was a hybrid and that its presence was a sign of climate change, they went with it.
See "Grolar or pizzly? Experts say rare grizzly-polar bear hybrid shot in Nunavut: Expert says interbreeding may be happening more frequently due to climate change (CBC 18 May 2016)."
More at link:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/06/22/ ... e-science/