Fun Fact Thursday!: I think these two know each other…
Scientists just recently discovered that Polar Bears aren’t a half million-year-old species (600,000 to be exact) that evolved from Brown Bears recently, but in fact date back more than 5 million years!
Polar Bears are kissing cousins to the Brown Bear, having developed more blubber and fattier milk as they ventured further north. They were known to mate with Brown Bears when weather warmed and they came into closer proximity with one another. Brown Bears in Alaska have a higher DNA similarity to their Polar cousins than Brown Bears in the lower 48. As the NY Times put it, “The progress of species formation, at least in this case, is a bit like a long, ambivalent divorce in which the two parties separate but occasionally fall back into bed even after the official decree.”
Find out more about Polar Bears and our new cub, Siku, at explore.org and check out Siku’s cousins on the live Brown Bear salmon fishing cam that launched this week!
