Climate Change Causes Polar and Brown Bear Sex

Due to climate change, the polar bear’s habitat is shrinking rapidly and the risk of extinction is severe; however, it may not be as dire as previously thought; polar bears may have an escape plan.  At times of climate change, polar bears tend get a little less picky with they decide to “date” and begin to mate at a much higher frequency with other bear species, such as the brown bear.

This isn’t simply due to loneliness, a need for companionship as they slowly wait for their extinction, but rather it may be an evolutionary trick that just might help save their genetic data in case their habitat is threatened, at least that is the hypothesis.  By mating with the brown bear, a new hybrid species can be created.  This is an incredible advantage which could allow the polar bear and the brown bear to survive during harsh times.  There is evidence of this occurring during the last ice age, when the brown bears habitat was being threatened.  Now the opposite is true, the polar bear can now be saved, and indeed more hybrids are being observed.

Pretty cool that bears may have a backup plan, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still strive to protect the polar bears and the brown bear, but now we may just have to protect these hybrids too.

So if you are backpacking this summer and you come across a polar bear and a brown bear, light a scented candle, put on a Barry White CD, then run like hell.

With climate changes, polar bear and brown bear lineages intertwine.