# Hunter shoots rare 'polargrizz'



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Hunter shoots rare 'polargrizz'
Test could confirm crossbreeding

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=ad39239d-f867-4fc3-b840-a01578ff782a&k=18820

Nathan VanderKliippe, CanWest News Service Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Jim Martell had spent nearly $50,000 for this moment, as he stared through the scope of his rifle at a male polar bear.
At least, that's what he thought it was.

What he ended up killing has since been described as a "pizzly," a "grolar bear" or, Martell's favourite, a "polargrizz."

From 300 metres away, though, the mid-sized bear looked like any of the others roaming the sea ice just south of Banks Island, 2,000 kilometres north of Edmonton.

Two weeks ago, Martell's Inuit guides had roused him from his sleep after spotting the animal. The 65-year-old Idaho sporthunter covered his winter coat with a white painter's shirt for camouflage, walked nearly two kilometres, and readied for the kill.

"He looked just like the other polar bears I seen," he said. "I shot, he rolled down the hill, we went after him and brought him back into camp. Everybody thought it was a polar bear, and then they started looking more and more and they seen other features that resembled some of a grizzly as well."

What they found was a bear with the thick, creamy white fur of a polar bear, but the long claws, humped back, and dished face of a grizzly. Its eyes are surrounded with rings of black, and its hide marked with small patches of brown on its nose, back and one foot. What exactly the animal is has stirred up intrigue among biologists and hunters across the Northwest Territories.

"I've never seen nothing like it," said Andy Carpenter, the mayor of Sachs Harbour, the tiny hamlet Martell's polar bear guides call home.

Carpenter's guess, like many northerners, is the bear is the offspring of a grizzly breeding with a polar bear.

Geneticists estimate about 250,000 years ago, some grizzly bears wandered onto the sea ice and discovered a smorgasbord of seals that no animal had yet begun to hunt. Grizzlies have a naturally large variation in colour, and over time the lighter coloured bears won out on the ice, and gradually the polar bear was born.

The two species remain biologically close enough that polar bears and grizzlies have produced fertile offspring in zoos. But never in the wild.

Ian Stirling, Canada's leading polar bear expert, has examined photos of the odd animal and says a cross-bred wild bear is possible.

"The probability of interbreeding of a polar and grizzly bear in the wild is pretty small, but it's not zero," he said. "So whatever this animal is, it's definitely very interesting."

A conclusive answer will come in a few weeks, when a B.C. lab finishes analyzing a DNA sample of the animal.


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## Ebowhunter (Apr 5, 2000)

What, no picture?


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## Due51 (Oct 26, 2005)

$50,000 for a Polar Bear hunt? Are you kidding me?:yikes:


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## FREEPOP (Apr 11, 2002)

Due51 said:


> $50,000 for a Polar Bear hunt? Are you kidding me?:yikes:


Probably the trophy fee for shooting a one of a kind animal :lol:


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## Rustyaxecamp (Mar 1, 2005)

Too cool.

I can only dream...


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## Ebowhunter (Apr 5, 2000)

Another site did a cost summary on the top ten. Polar bears were #1 at $50K.


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## Bowhunter-69 (May 4, 2006)

You asked for it, here's the pic I posted at Mathews:
http://forums.mathewsinc.com/viewtopic.php?t=33563


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Name that bear

YELLOWKNIFE, N.W.T. -- DNA analysis has confirmed that an odd-looking bear discovered in the Far North is the first cross-bred polar and grizzly bear ever discovered in the wild.

Now the search is on to name it. "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 sporthunter from Idaho, prefers "polargrizz."

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=0c6ae388-05df-4f29-9ce9-7b7831c7f887&k=95255


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## motcityman (Apr 4, 2006)

If you paid $50K for a hunt..you can call it what you want..at least i would think so..LOL..just my 2 cents


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## Shop Rat (Apr 8, 2006)

Can you believe that? If it is a white Grizzly he could be charged. :coco: How could anyone have a clue that it is not a Polar bear? The story says that they took it and he can only get it back if the dna is not Grizzly. If someone shoots something crazy here like a hen turkey with a beard or a doe with a rack, then the hunter gets a break, right? The guy was in polar bear country with polar bear guides.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

'Polargrizz' goes to Idaho
Trophy hunter takes home first known grizzly-polar bear cross

EDMONTON - The stuffed carcass of the world's first known cross between a polar bear and a grizzly is on its way to the Idaho home of a wealthy American hunter who killed the animal this spring.

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjourn...=2201a7ff-666f-4f94-8042-4a4b6b36cd98&k=38325


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Rare hybrid bear comes to Idaho  as a trophy

GLENNS FERRY, Idaho  Jim Martell has been hunting since age 8 and has dozens of trophies, including two 10 feet-tall brown bears from Russia, a wallaby from New Zealand and two ibex from Kyrgyzstan.

But his most exotic yet is the worlds only recorded incidence of a wild polar bear-grizzly crossbreed.

Martell, 66, shot the hybrid that scientists have dubbed a pizzly this spring, sending shockwaves through the scientific community. The now-stuffed bear took its place in his trophy room this month, a few feet away from a Canadian wolf.

http://www.thedailyworld.com/articles/2007/01/21/ap/regional/regional.txt


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## Tecumseh (Aug 13, 2004)

Cool looking animal. The thing that strikes me most about the whole thing is knowing that I will never ever have the chance to hunt a polar bear and probably not even a guided Grizzly bear hunt. $50,000!


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