Thread: Anyone ITK about genetics?

Bit of a random question, but curious.

Would it be possible to cross a Polar Bear with the Brown Bear?

Clearly, they would never meet under any sort of natural conditions, so it may well be that there has been too much of a genetic drift from one another, to have a successful litter of cubs.

Or maybe not.

Maybe the genetics would be fine, but the practicalities would be a problem.

I have a feeling that the whole bear mating thing would be pretty aggresive between two bears of the same species, let alone two of different species - would they even be interested in mating, would they more likely fight?

Again, I suppose it could be done through semen extraction, and impregnation, that would probably be the most feasible of all.

Of course, both species do inhabit vastly different terrain, so it would be interesting to see what sort of habitat and food the cubs inclined toward?

Short answer: Yes.

Look up pizzly bear, polizzly, prizzly bear, or grolar bear (wiki).

This has been done both in the wild and in captivity.

Fascinating, thanks;

Grizzlies (and also Kodiak bears and "Alaskan brown bears", which are all subspecies of the brown bear, Ursus arctos), tend to live and breed on land. Polar bears prefer the water and ice, usually breeding on the ice. The yellowish-white MacFarlane's bear, a mysterious animal known only from one specimen acquired in 1864, seems to attest that grizzly-polar bear hybrids may have always occurred from time to time. Another theory suggests that the polar bears have been driven southward by the melting of the ice cap, bringing them into closer contact with grizzly bears.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly...ar_bear_hybrid

They call them hybrids which implies that they are not capable of reproducing. I didn't find anything concrete on it though.

Originally Posted by toddwv

They call them hybrids which implies that they are not capable of reproducing. I didn't find anything concrete on it though.

I never believed for one moment that the two species would ever come close to one another in nature, yet it seems that they do, and if I am reading it right, this is on the increase, esp with the change in the conditions, to the environment of the Polar Bear.

While it is worrying that man's actions endangers the very air that everything breathes, not to mention all the other negative things we do, from what I read, the Polar and Brown Bear examples are by no means unique, with other types of animals that would not normally breed, doing so, in the wild.

Maybe this is the start of a brand new wave of species, on the planet, new species of bear, for example, which have adapted to suit the enviorment.

If it suits the survival of the bear to have genes that are from the Polar Bear and the Brown Bear, then it is logical that they would gravitate toward increasingly cross breeding, until a new species was created, that was took the best qualities from both, to suit the current conditions.

I am not suggesting this as absolute fact, just throwing it out there.

And maybe this has always gone on, this is perhaps how so many species were created anyway, as well as all the other accepted factors.

Maybe certain primates today are relatives of two different species of primate who, for whatever reason, bred, and created a new species, one better suited to whatever the conditions were?

And, if we take that on as plausible, can we suggest that man is also a possible hybrid(sic), between two primate species, which gave birth to what we would call homo sapien?

Originally Posted by Jack Napier

Bit of a random question, but curious.

Would it be possible to cross a Polar Bear with the Brown Bear?

Clearly, they would never meet under any sort of natural conditions, so it may well be that there has been too much of a genetic drift from one another, to have a successful litter of cubs.

Or maybe not.

Maybe the genetics would be fine, but the practicalities would be a problem.

I have a feeling that the whole bear mating thing would be pretty aggresive between two bears of the same species, let alone two of different species - would they even be interested in mating, would they more likely fight?

Again, I suppose it could be done through semen extraction, and impregnation, that would probably be the most feasible of all.

Of course, both species do inhabit vastly different terrain, so it would be interesting to see what sort of habitat and food the cubs inclined toward?

Most think that polar bears are offshoots from brown bears. Hybrids between polar bears and grizzly bears have been found.

http://www.polarbearsinternational.o...tion/evolution

http://www.polarbear-world.com/polar...evolution.html

Does anyone find it plausible that two different primate type species may well have cross bred, and the unexpected outcome was a primate with a larger brain, that walked upright?

Homo sapien.