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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Is it a pizzly, or grolar bear?

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 05/10/2006 5:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

YELLOWKNIFE, N.W.T. -- The DNA analysis is done, and the proof is in the chromosomes: an odd-looking bear discovered in the Far North is the first cross-bred polar and grizzly bear ever discovered in the wild.

That leaves only one thing to do. Find a name for it.

And there are plenty of contenders. "Pizzly" and "grolar bear" were among the first to surface after the bear was shot April 16 on the southern tip of Banks Island, 2,000 kilometres north of Edmonton.

Jim Martell, a 65-year-old sport hunter from Idaho, prefers "polargrizz."

Martell shot the mid-sized male after his Inuit guide pointed out what looked like a polar bear in the distance. Authorities seized the animal after noticing its polar-bear-white fur was mottled with brown patches, and its eyes were set inside thin circles of black skin. It also bore some distinctly grizzly-like features, including long claws, a humped back and a dished face.

When it became clear this was not a normal polar bear Martell, who had paid $50,000 to hire guides and buy a polar bear tag for the hunt, was left facing possible charges for shooting an animal he was not permitted to hunt. Now the Northwest Territories' Environment and Natural Resources Department plans to return the bear, since its genetics are half polar bear, leaving Martell with what might be the most unique Arctic bear skin on Earth.

"It will be quite a trophy," Martell said last week, before hearing that the bear was his to keep. Yesterday, he had returned to Yellowknife for another hunt, this time for a grizzly bear, and was unavailable for comment.

Not surprisingly, though, his bear has stirred considerable curiosity in the hunting and scientific communities.

"It's very interesting," said Ian Stirling, Canada's leading polar bear biologist. Some in his office have begun floating the name "nanulak," combining the Inuit names for polar bear -- nanuk - and grizzly -- aklak.

In tiny Sachs Harbour, where Martell's guide, Roger Kuptana lives, the going name is "Half-Breed" -- and the bear is the talk of the town.

"Myself, I don't even know what to call it," said Kuptana, who has hunted bears for 40 years. "The elders and biologists have never heard of polar bears and grizzlies mating in the wild, although it's been known to happen in zoos."

What's clear is that the union that produced the bear was more than a chance encounter on the sea ice, a frozen one-night stand. Female polar bears and grizzlies only become fertile after repeated mating -- and the animals usually spend many days courting before parting ways again.

"They would have to have been together very likely for at least a week," said Stirling.

So was it love?

"I don't deal in things like that," he said.

-- CanWest News Service

PHOTO

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 10, 2006 $sourceSection$sourcePage

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