Climate change is seriously messing with the bear population. Polar bears and grizzly bears have both been called endangered, even if that label isn't official, and now the paths of both types of bear are crossing thanks to warming temperatures. Not only are they coming in contact, they're finding time for some bear lovin' as well, with the result being the newly-coined "grolar bears," a hybrid of the two species.

The cross-breed was discovered two years ago when a white bear with brown spots was shot to death in northern Canada. Results from a DNA test showed it was a "grolar bear," and likely the offspring of a male grizzly and female polar bear.

Biologist Dr George Divoky, who has worked in the Arctic region for over three decades, said: “One of the real things that is happening is that grizzlies are moving north, at the same time the polar bears are forced to be on the beach and we have found a number of grizzly bear polar bear hybrids. Essentially that could mean that it would save the polar bear genes in the grizzly population.”

Divoky is a scientists with the Institute of Arctic Biology and studies the Guillemot sea bird on the northern coast of Alaska. According to him, the occurrences of polar bears searching for food on the island where he lives while conducting his research.

And Dr Divoky had a message for climate change sceptics, saying: “Having a polar bear show up in your front yard is one of the more compelling pieces of evidence that climate change is real.”

All it will take to mitigate the seriousness of this situation is for a baby "grolar bear" club to be born. Once pictures spread and a new cub experiences the same fame as Flocke and Knut, no one will remember what the implications of the hybrid bear even are.

» The Sun