Climate change brings brolar species, results of mating between brown and polar bears

FLY – Brolar Bear is the result cross marriage between the brown bear and polar bears in Russia. This hybrid animal is considered to be more resistant to climatic changes occurring in its habitat.

The brolar bear is known to be better suited to warmer temperatures than the polar bear. So they don’t rely as much on sea ice for hunting as polar bears.

This hybrid bear has a predominantly white coat with a brownish tinge. This bear has a nose that is a cross between a polar bear and a brown bear or grizzly bear.

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Dr. Innokentiy Okhlopkov, a biologist at the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SBRAS), has revealed a growing prevalence of brolar bears. This is due to warming climate change allowing brown bears to venture further north to hunt.

So the two species of brown bear and polar bear met when their habitats overlapped. As a result, the bears gave birth to hybrid cubs, which were first seen in the wild in 2006, when Arctic hunters killed a white bear with brown spots in Canada.

“Brown bears are moving into the tundra. Brown bears have been spotted in the lower reaches of the Kolyma River where polar bears live,” Okhlopkov told Russia’s TASS news agency as quoted by SINDOnews from the Daily Mail page on Thursday (11/17/2022).

Many studies have confirmed that the Arctic ice sheet is thinning, making it increasingly difficult for bears to get the nutrients they need. This year, NASA confirmed that Arctic winter sea ice is at its 10th lowest record, losing an area 40 times the size of Wales.

“This trend is related to warming caused by human activities such as carbon dioxide emissions, which trap heat in the atmosphere and cause temperatures to rise,” NASA said in a statement.

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According to the Institute of Permafrost Studies at SBRAS, the average annual temperature in Yakutia has increased from 1.1 degrees Celsius to 3.4 degrees Celsius over the past 50 years. Due to the changing terrain, polar bears have been known to find their way inland in search of more food.

Polar bears are known to survive on a diet solely of blubber and use sea ice to hunt seals that emerge from the water in search of air. The Republic of Sakha, or Yakutia, is home to the Laptev and Chukchi-Alaska polar bear populations.

Experts have warned that since brown bears are much more numerous in the north, they could genetically eat polar bears. Research has found that shrinking Arctic habitats are also forcing species to interbreed, which reduces offspring fertility and leads to cannibalism.

A 2020 study warned that large parts of the polar bear population are at risk of extinction by 2100 as their natural habitat on Arctic sea ice is reduced by global warming. They are also at risk from poaching, including trophy hunting, and environmental pollution.

(wib)