Why Hybrid Animals May Take Over the North

Credits:
Narrator/Writer: Stephanie Sammann
Writer: Ashleen Knutsen

Imagery courtesy of Getty Images

Music:

the-city-of-hope by Borrtex
The-5th-season
league---instrumental-version by michael-shynes
honey by trooper
closer by ian-post
circularity by brianna-tam
chapter-two by brianna-tam
beyond by ian-post

References:

[14]

[frenchfrieguy]

We had Coyote/wolf mixes where I used to live. Smartest canines I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with. They weren't afraid of humans, just cautious around us. They traveled in groups of 3 (6 total) and hunted the local foxes and cats out before going after the deer. There was one in particular that would try to "sneakily" follow me along the river bank. I say that with quotations because the dingus was too big to hide in the bank grass lol

[seagk]

Can we all agree grolar bear sounds SO much better than pizzly bears?

[racebiketuner]

I'm surprised you didn't mention the coywolf. Also raccoons have been splitting into two species over the last few hundred years. The city raccoons are now faster in a drag race than their country cousins. Four-lane road crossings eliminated the slower ones from gene pool.

[konstantindiachenko]

Several years ago I spent a few weeks in the higher arctic (construction). Once I had a chance to go fishing with local residents (Inuits). They mentioned we must be careful not to cross with grizzly a bear. I was shocked - a grizzly at latitude 70 on an Arctic island?!
But they said at their location now grizzlies outnumber polar bears by far! (~1:6)
Amazing how they are making their dens to hibernate through long arctic winters having no trees.

[Vinkabbeats]

I hope spiders dont share the same amount of chromosomes as anything with wings, that is all...

[aceescartin]

There's this guy i know, he's called donkey. He was able to mate with a dragon

[squa_]

I learned about those a couple years ago....
I'm glad that there is someone who did the research for me :D

[josephcosta]

It truly is heartbreaking to learn about the habitat for polar bears. 😭 I imagine those poor animals are starving to death. No species should have to die like that. I really hope they find a way to survive.

[remveel]

Adaptation at it's finest. Polar bears were like: "The ice is melting and we all gonna die, lets mate with those that live in the other side!"

[ericpaquette]

There are also other hybrids showing up in other places. In northern Ontario we commonly see crosses with wolves and coyotes. We call them coywolf. They have the opportunistic and inquiry of a coyotes and the bite force and strength of a wolf.

[abriannaaguilera]

Oh man imagine discovering a new species and killing the only one

[snufkin]

2:02 mins in, I can say that I think the reason why animals are hybridizing is to share more positive traits across environments since humans are taking more of their natural habitats. Like the best of both worlds.

[romxxii]

Scientists: "how could this polar-grizzly hybrid happen?"
Grizzly: "yeah I hit that"

[WoodnMonkey]

I've recently discovered this channel. Despite the fact that I am 16 year old russian, who doesn't know a thing about biology, I really enjoyed watching - great work)

[thmadeym]

I still find it hard to comprehend how privileged we are to be able to consume such high quality content for free. Thank you so much Real Science!

[seangere]

Pizzly and Grolar bears have two different body plans. The Pizzly has the body plan of a Polar bear, so it should have a close to the same lifestyle as the Polar bear. While the Grolar Bear has the body plan of a Grizzly, so it should have a lifestyle similar to that of a Grizzly. Both may be better suited to the Artic/sub-artic all the way down to more temperate climates. With the Pizzly staying more north while the Grolar moving further south. At least if the body plan is taken into account and that translates over to them, taking after one parent more than the other in their diets.

[daniels]

Should be obvious. After all, wolves and dogs remain capable of interbreeding even though we tend to treat them as different "species". Despite the fact that many dogs have been artificially bred into radically different forms from their common ancestors with modern wolves.

[jacquejac]

Kinda surprised coywolves, wolfdogs, & coydogs weren't mentioned.

[GediMini]

Sorry, but who ever is responsible for naming the hybrid species, please, PLEASE keep working on those names and put in some effort... A pizzly must not stay...

[anthonyproffitt]

This has happened throughout history, but we didn’t have the research and tracking of such things, combined with situations making it more likely.