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Concept
Ursid hybrid
Summary
An ursid hybrid is an animal with parents from two different species or subspecies of the bear family (Ursidae). Species and subspecies of bear known to have produced offspring with another bear species or subspecies include American black bears, grizzly bears, and polar bears, all of which are members of the genus Ursus. Bears not included in Ursus, such as the giant panda, are expected to be unable to produce hybrids with other bears. The giant panda bear belongs to the genus Ailuropoda.
Note all of the confirmed hybrids listed here have been in captivity (except grizzly × polar bear), but suspected hybrids have been found in the wild.
A recent study found genetic evidence of multiple instances and species combinations where genetic material has passed the species boundary in bears (a process called introgression by geneticists). Specifically, species with evidence of past intermingling were (1) brown bear and American black bear, (2) brown bear and polar bear, (3) American black bear and Asian black bear. Overall, this study shows that evolution in the bear family (Ursidae) has not been strictly bifurcating, but instead showed complex evolutionary relationships.
All the Ursinae species (i.e., all bears except the giant panda and the spectacled bear) appear able to crossbreed.
In 1859, a black bear and a European brown bear were bred together in the London Zoological Gardens, but the three cubs did not reach maturity. In The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication Darwin noted:
In the nine-year Report it is stated that the bears had been seen in the Zoological Gardens to couple freely, but previously to 1848 most had rarely conceived. In the Reports published since this date three species have produced young (hybrids in one case), ...
A bear shot in autumn 1986 in Alaska was thought by some to be a grizzly × black bear hybrid, due to its unusually large size and its proportionately larger braincase and skull. DNA testing was unable to determine whether it was a large American black bear or a grizzly bear.
Official source
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