A DNA test has confirmed what zoologists, big-game hunters and aboriginal trackers in the far northern reaches of Canada have imagined for years: the first documented case of a hybrid grizzly-polar bear in the wild.

"Roger Kuptana, an Inuit tracker from the Northwest Territories, suspected the American hunter he was guiding had shot a hybrid bear last month after noticing its white fur had brown patches and it had the long claws and slightly humped back of a grizzly."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/05/11/canada.hybrid.ap/index.html

guess bears need some "strange" too

Pretty interesting, if it was one of a kind its almost ashame that it was killed IMO

Jungle fever. This got me thinking about what else is probably out there. For example, has anyone ever seen a whitetail/mulie hybrid?

There have been numerous stufies done on whitetail/mulie mixes. Apparently, it is quite common. In fact, they are worried about the future of the mule deer in some areas because the whitetails are in effect breeding them out. There was an interesting article about it in American Hunter (I think) a few months ago.

I guess my thinking was wrong, because I thought that specimens from two seperate species couldn't mate... but the more I think about it, I guess that's how we get mules -- a horse and a donkey, if I'm not mistaken. Maybe it's got to be a whole seperate family of animals... hmmm.

There are whitetail/mulie hybreds. I read an article on it once. The article stated that whitetails are much more aggressive in their breeding and that the whitetail could possibly breed the mulie out since a whitetail will run a doe and a mulie wont as a general rule.Thats just what I had read.

Jay

You're thinking was wrong. After all, I'm from Upstate NY and married a South Georgia girl.[8D]

"Maybe it's got to be a whole seperate family of animals" - Greg

Only in some states. LOL. Sorry, I just had to say it.

Most hybrids are sterile and can't reproduce. Cross Stripers and Sand Bass and you get the hybrids that are stocked in many reservoirs, but these fish cannot reproduce. Mules are sterile hybrids from horses and donkeys. Hybrids do occur in the wild but there are usually reproductive problems associated with them that do not allow them to breed further and the genetics become part of the makeup of the species.

As for mulie/whitetail hybrids it is nearly always the much more aggressive whitetail buck breeding the more non-agressive mulie doe, and not the other way around. Also true mulie/whitetail hybrids as provable by genetic testing are not as common as some biologists and "experts" would have you believe. Really the main issue with these species is that whitetails are more agressive and just flat out out-compete their larger cousins. But that is a loooonnnng discussion.