I eschewed drawing a power animal for this year's Imbolc after I discovered an article in Science News
which is quite, well, compelling. Seeing as how it involves the polar bear, and hints to at least a small degree of veracity as to the theory of Global Warming, I thought it might be of interest. It seems as though grizzly bears are migrating in significant numbers towards more northerly climates, and as a result may be in the process of interbreeding with polar bears. Tha above photo upon DNA examination has proven to be a hybrid. The mother was a polar bear, the father a grizzly, and so it is, depending on your preference for now, a Pizzly or or a Grolar.
It's really too bad the bear in the picture had to be killed, as that makes for a pretty gruesome photo for what is supposed to be a part of a Sabbat series. Unfortunately, I could not find any photos of living Grolar bears, and I thought this story was of sufficient interest that it warranted some kind of descriptive accompaniment, grim though it is.
What is most remarkable about this particular discovery is that the mating habits of bears are such that a male ans female will spend a considerable amount of time-for a bear-before they will consummate the sex act. It takes place over a period of days, which means it was not a matter of an incidental contact with a female in heat that just rolled over for the first male bear that happened alone.
Could this herald the end of the Polar Bear as we know it? Could this turn into an entirely new breed which is equally at home hunting on land as fishing for its food from the ice. Probably not, if for no other reason than conservationists will probably insist on taking steps to prevent the total extinction of the Polar Bear, while at the same time allowing nature to take it's course within the confines of limited regions.
I just thought that was interesting, as it seems to be an aspect of evolution in action, taking place in our own modern day.
It's a story that has been on-going since the beginnings of life on earth-migration and adaptation. The Grolar Bear-the perfect power anumal for these trying times.