Hunter Shoots First Recorded Wild Grizzly-Polar Bear Cross - AFP

[hatrack]

A US hunter in Canada's far north may have killed the first Grizzly-Polar bear cross ever discovered in the wild, officials told AFP Wednesday. Jim Martell, 65, who paid 50,000 Canadian dollars (45,000 US dollars) to hunt Polar bears, shot the animal, described by local media as a "pizzly", a "grolar bear", or Martell's favorite, a "polargrizz" two weeks ago.

The Idaho native told The National Post:"Everybody thought it was a Polar bear, and then they started looking more and more and they seen other features that resembled some of a Grizzly as well." The bear had thick, creamy white fur, typical of Polar bears, but its long claws, humped back and shallow face, as well as brown patches around its eyes, nose, back and on one foot are Grizzly traits.

Geneticists have linked the two species. They believe Grizzly bears ventured north some 250,000 years ago to hunt seals and that their fur turned white over time. Thus, the Polar bear was born. Odd couples have produced mixed offspring in captivity. But, this is the first apparent discovery of a mixed breed in the wild, officials said.

The two species mate at different times of the year and inhabit vastly different regions -- one lives on Arctic ice floes, the other in forests. But hunters have reported seeing grizzlies further north in recent years as the Arctic warms, said Andy Carpenter, mayor of Sachs Harbour, a tiny hamlet on Banks Island where the bear was shot.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Hunter_Shoots_Rare_Grizzly_Polar_Bear_Cross_In_Canada.html

[Tab]

1. Forget the cross

This f*wad paid $45,000 to shoot a polar bear??

[TomInTib]

3. Give him a break. He saved it from drowning.

Man, that whole thing just pisses me off.

If DU takes up a collection, for $5,000 I will...

[GrumpyGreg]

2. I don't get hunting for sport--never have,never will'

I could not pull the trigger on an animal that is just trying to suvive,as we are.

How sad!

[Kailassa]

4. Not sport even ... it's not as though the bear was any competition.

If there is any justice, in the next world the bear can hunt the hunter, and if anyone has a gun, it will be the bear.

[MadMaddie]

5. So he killed a rarely found species of bear....Wow that's something

to be proud of:sarcasm:

[Dead_Parrot]

6. dipshit.

You can forgive him for not knowing what he shot, but not for actually paying to shoot a polar bear. Somebody give him a glass & honey cocktail.

[kenny blankenship]

7. It's only a matter of time before they mate with great white sharks

and then no place will be safe.

[Dead_Parrot]

8. hunters, or bears? nt

[Nihil]

9. In the interests of science ...

... I propose that we give Mother Nature the best chance on
that hypothesis and toss all of the limpdick "hunters" into
the sea to find out if the sharks will mate with them.

If we run out of "hunters", we could move onto the scum that
poison bears, murder whales and mutilate sharks.

(PS: I used the term "hunters" to differentiate between the
people who kill things for fun, often paying large amounts of
money into an immoral industry to do so, and those who hunt
for food, to keep themselves and their families alive.)

[htuttle]

11. I think Colbert was talking about that last night!

...or he SHOULD have been!

[Kailassa]

10. There are plenty of moral, thoroughly sporting hunting trips

being organized these days. Trips where the "weapon" being used is a camera.

But it's much harder to take a good photograph of an animal than to kill it, so I guess this guy realized he was not smart enough for that.