They're Breaking the Species Barrier

[@TheRogueWolf]

UPDATE: After hearing the term "pizzly bears", polar bears and grizzly bears have agreed to just be friends.

[@Gildedmuse]

What about grolar bears? Of course that requires the opposite pairing

[@PRDreams]

Pozzly bears would have made more sense... but sound less funny.

[@TalsBadKidney]

They're called grolar bears damnit!

[@ericdew2021]

Oh heck. How about Fozzy Bear?

[@deGoomyan5538]

@@Gildedmuse grolar bears exist and the actual term

[@justayoutuber1906]

The biggest example of this is the eastern coyote or coywolf. I was surprised this wasn't in here. This is a mix of the small western coyote and gray wolf. In 2014, a DNA study of northeastern coyotes showed them on average to be a hybrid of western coyote (62%), western wolf (14%), eastern wolf (13%), and domestic dog (11%)

[@katrianem2124]

Yeah coyote wolf hybrids are a real nuisance for conservationists. I’m surprised they aren’t mentioned.

[@cody.5102]

I think they’ve done an episode on coywolves

[@borrellipatrick]

Heard about them, live in New England. But haven't seen one. Heard about them because it's our fault 🥴 Human settlement expansion and their habitat destruction is pushing their territory to be closer and overlap.

[@juliaf_]

The Canis genus as a whole is a massive mess lol. Is the eastern grey wolf a gray wolf? Red Wolf? Coyote hybrid? Its own species? Are red wolves a hybrid, gray wolf subspecies, or its own species? The entire genus can interbreed and and form fertile offspring, completely screwing with the definitions of the species

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

@@wasidanatsali6374 I wonder if that was an instinct to keep the kill less noticeable to other predators or scavengers, maybe, so they'd be there to eat later. I mean, not that 12 calves would be needed before they were inedible to anything but the buzzards, but instinct is weird.

[@richards3648]

It is a shame we do not call marine iguanas merguanas.

[@haharmageddontv6581]

seaguana hehe

[@DPAE-xc4ph]

How about 'mariguana'?

[@dantearias2182]

@@DPAE-xc4ph mariguanas is perfect

[@MisterCynic18]

I mean we can. No one can stop us.

[@nathanlevesque7812]

If we did then I'd have yet another reason to pick marine iguanas as my top pick for hypothetical reincarnation to another species.

[@hopeadler507]

As an inuk hearing John accurately use the term made me cry. I rarely hear people use the correct term! If people didn’t know: Inuit is a group of people Inuk is one person Inuuk is two people! ❤

[@netpackrat]

And you all live in the Juneau area....🤣

[@hopeadler507]

@@netpackrat what does that even mean? I’m not even from that region.

[@netpackrat]

​@@hopeadler507 Sorry. At 4:55 when the narrator was talking about where polar bears live, they showed a map of southeast Alaska featuring the locations of Juneau and Sitka. That's completely on the other side of Alaska from where any Polar Bears (and most Inuit) live. So, he may have gotten his terminology right, but the people who made the video have no clue whatsoever about the geography they are trying to describe.

[@cryptidofthemarshes1680]

This is Hank. Haha

[@hopeadler507]

@@cryptidofthemarshes1680 whoops right. My brain knows this but somehow I still wrote this. Probably because I was watching a John video right before this video 😅

[@KAZVorpal]

Four million years isn't unusual at all in hybridization. It is the time between donkeys and horses, and between lions and tigers. In fact, the really amazing one is that camels and llamas can be hybridized, though they're separated by more like 17 million years.

[@shartsmcginty8056]

And now, I am uncontrollably chanting "camellama, camellama" to the tune of Rock Me Amadeus.

[@KAZVorpal]

@@shartsmcginty8056The Vice President appreciates your support.

[@IchorX]

Ain't much happening in the desert I guess

[@lordtachanka903]

Am I the only one that thinks Grolar bear sounds way cooler than pizzly? Pizzly sounds like a name you’d call your annoying cousin when you’re in front of grandparents and can’t swear 😂 Edit: fixed spelling mistake

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

Well, the odd thing is, the case listed here should be grolars, since the male was a grizzly. The naming convention is that the sire makes the first part of the name, and the dam makes the last part. So when a male Polar bear is the father, then offspring would be Pizzlies, and when a male Grizzly bear is the father, then offspring would be Grolars. I'm not sure why they called the lineage here Pizzlies. 🤷‍♀️

[@lordtachanka903]

@@MaryAnnNytowl that makes sense, I remember there was a similar thing with ligers where the lineage is what defines the name. Thanks for the info tho kind stranger ❤️ much love (sorry if that sounded passive aggressive I’m autistic and I didn’t mean it to sound rude I’m just legitimately thanking you lol)

[@Tdx21]

Bi-polar bear is right there! such a missed opportunity!

[@antarbenson9328]

Grolar bears are a thing too. Like Ligers and Tigons.

[@KOKO-uu7yd]

GROLAR FOR THE WIN!!

[@anonymouscausethatshowirol828]

If you think the hybridization of the iguanas is hard given the time spent distant, you’ll like the sturddlefish, the paddlefish sturgeon hybrid with parent species separated by like 70 million years

[@Dell-ol6hb]

also tigers and lions diverged millions of years ago and still can hybridize and donkeys and horses split like 4 million years ago and still can hybridize so clearly it's not that surprising

[@jaschabull2365]

I remember being floored hearing of an elephant hybrid that was born in a zoo once, they aren't even considered the same genus, with Asian elephants thought to be closer to mammoths. The paddlefish and sturgeons sound even wilder than that, not even seen as sharing a family, though taxonomy isn't always consistent in terms of ranking, so I'm not sure if that means they diverged earlier than the elephants, but I wouldn't be surprised.

[@ambrosianapier7545]

I am not sure if Ligers are fertile themselves(I don’t think they are) But Mules are definitely infertile. One mule can’t have kids with another mule or a horse or a donkey, it’s a dead end.

[@jaschabull2365]

@@ambrosianapier7545 Apparently there have been extremely rare cases of mules giving birth (only giving birth, male mules are absolutely infertile). I think if it against all odds produces an egg which just bears genetic material from its mother, it can foal. There's a MinuteEarth video about it.

[@sapphirII]

@@ambrosianapier7545 The males are sterile but females are fertile. The same with their tigons cousins(one has a mother tiger and a father lion and the other was has the opposite)

[@wretched560]

OMG A NARLUGA??? As someone who wants to become a marine biologist this is crazy to me!!!! I want to find out more about this animal hybrid, the fact it was searching the floor for food sent shivers up my spine! Maybe it was using it's teeth to help it find food? The fact that a new species may be in the making is so amazing to me! If no one is researching about this hybrid by the time I'm done all my schooling I may just start researching myself!

[@mirishikibacchus6862]

Wow good luck!! I hope you're given the chance to carry out this research, I'm totally curious about this new chance to learn about a new species in the making🙌💖I also love Marine Biology ❤️ but I dont really want to become a Marine Biologist anymore

[@brianorr308]

Neat video! Couple updates for this video. 1. Asiatic Lions and Tigers used to have an overlapping range quite recently in the past, so hybrids could have occurred naturally, although still infertile I assume. 2. There is a male Narwhal that has been raised with a pod of Beluga. This year he has been spotted having courting behaviour with the Beluga females in his pod. So, researchers are looking for signs of pregnancy and a hybrid calf hopefully.

[@alexanderx33]

5:07 Once you go grizzly... Also I like how the diagram makes it clear where (specifically) all her offspring came from.

[@foxylovelace2679]

+

[@glitz420]

😂😂😂

[@alliedatheistalliance6776]

Sup my grizzle?

[@walterbrooks2329]

once you go brown, you're always down

[@Mary-qs8hr]

I was scrolling long and far for this comment 😂 as soon as I herd him say the FEMALE polar bear had a type I jumped to the comments

[@TheJake76]

Actually, tigers and lions still have one last overlap in distribution, which is the Gir forest.

[@gabrielrangel956]

Went to the comment section to say exactly this

[@justayoutuber1906]

Grrrrrr

[@jman360co]

@@justayoutuber1906 meow

[@SuperDjwasabi]

Tigers haven't been seen in that area in 25 years and even that was a single individual.

[@robuxyyyyyyyyyy4708]

@@SuperDjwasabi That's kinda sad if they lost territory

[@andyjay729]

1:07 Narluga 3:49 Pizzly bear 6:05 Iguamibian 8:35 Australommon blacktip shark 11:09 Mexicallard duck, spot-ballard duck, red-mested pallchard, greyllard guck, mottlard duck, Amallardican black duck...

[@DragoNate]

lol here's mine :D beluga + narwhal = beluwhal (blue wall) polar + brown bear = power bear or growlar bear but pizzly is fine too mallard + mottled = matt

[@melorawr1608]

@@DragoNate I like "Matt". Should be the official name!

[@Graytail]

Red-mested pallchard? that sounds like a species of fish.... DONT give those malards any ideas!

[@DragoNate]

@@melorawr1608 I agree. We need to call all naming scientists immediately & tell them!

[@theman4884]

Somewhere on youtube is a video about a man who was arrest for shooting a Prizzly Bear. He had a license to take a Polar Bear but the warden saw brown and assumed Grizzly. After a very long legal battle the kill was deemed legal.

[@hcn6708]

I'd like to point out that the reason lions and tigers don't normally mate in the wild isn't because of habitats (lions and tigers did overlap a decent amount before the former got exterminated from almost all of South Asia), but probably because of different mating habits.

[@jaschabull2365]

I guess that makes sense, I've heard leopards are supposed to be closer relatives of lions than tigers, so they should be able to interbreed, and they share a habitat, so they aren't prevented geographically, yet they seldom do, presumably because their very different lifestyles leave few opportunities for it.

[@asmith8692]

Scientists did an analysis to track feline DNA and found lion DNA in snow leopards. So there was some hybridization happening at some point.

[@thesjkexperience]

Yes, tiger culture and Lion culture is very different from each other. It’s why you seldom see trained lions because they act as a pride and out number the trainer.

[@leroilapue15]

@@thesjkexperience haha that's awesome, lions are perculiar!

[@jeffeppenbach]

There was a mallard mixed threesome that hung out at the port area I work much of the time, for a few seasons running. A male and female mallard, and their domestic goose third. I haven't seen them for about half a decade, but each year for a while, they would be together. They would swim in a wedge shape, with the male in the lead. I never saw if they had any babies with them, but the area really wasn't to conductive for that.

[@mamarutnielsen1380]

i’ve seen a beluga in a flock of narwhals and the flock follows the beluga, it’s such a weird site to see even for us Inuit, i’ve heard few hunters had caught narlugas before and the description of them are really similar in this video

[@trapperjohn6089]

Do they taste different?

[@mamarutnielsen1380]

@@trapperjohn6089 most of people who eats them can’t tell the difference of taste of their skin, it’s an Inuit delicacy around Alaska, Canada and Greenland, it has same name but pronounced differently depending on the region “maktat” “mattak” “muktuk”. but to me yeah, they taste different, the meat of beluga is more tender and they dont have fat as much as narwhals.

[@Lisargarza]

“A highway on-ramp” not only describes mallard duck gene flow into mottled duck populations but also accurately depicts male mallard duck courtship rituals as well.

[@evalopez1454]

The absolute rapist duck.

[@CWZimba]

Yeah absolute r*pists

[@kevinthiago413]

im prety shure we humans did this with neanderthals

[@rossplendent]

The situation with mallards and mottled ducks is exactly how I've always pictured the ultimate fate of the neanderthals. They weren't killed or outcompeted by humans--their gene pool simply got folded into the much larger human population over the course of thousands of years.

[@garethbaus5471]

That does make sense.

[@Vugtis_El_VillaVODS]

Sam O'Nella did a video about this

[@ambrosianapier7545]

Yep, Neanderthals even had culture, we’re found buried with other human races and such. They were human.

[@garethbaus5471]

@@ambrosianapier7545 All members of the genus homo are generally considered to be human as a general rule.

[@a.i.a3949]

Sorry to nitpick but neanderthals were technically also humans, just a subspecies different to homosapiens. I totally agree with your point though.

[@coasterblocks3420]

Great episode. I’d love to see an episode on the most indiscriminately promiscuous family of life on earth - orchids. There’s a crazy amount of natural hybridisation in this plant family, even between very distantly related genera.

[@emilysmith2965]

Wait. So you’re telling me that the flower that looks like genitals IS the sluttiest flower?! Amazing

[@Marewig]

I'll raise your orchids with my citruses. Talk about indiscriminately promiscuous, that's definitely one family that's been hybridising themselves everywhere

[@katelynwoodworth9989]

Loved this video. Some humans today are hybrid with various other extinct humanoids. Crazy when you really think about it. Humans, in a way, were like those mallards.

[@murilo7794]

Pretty much anyone who isn't 100% african is a hybrid

[@Alias_Anybody]

​@@murilo7794 Even Africans usually are.

[@murilo7794]

@Alias_Anybody true, they usually have at least one european ancestor. But an african that was, let's say, from an uncontacted tribe that never interacted with europeans, should be 100% homo sapiens.

[@Alias_Anybody]

@@murilo7794 Not really. Significant "re-migration" from Eurasia back to Africa already occurred in pre-history, and effects basically everyone down to the Sahel. The people in South and southern central Africa however seem to have admixture from another ancient hominid native to Africa below the Congo. So there might be no "pure" homo sapiens left at all.

[@murilo7794]

@Alias_Anybody I did not know other human species had existed in Sub-Saharan Africa. In that case, there are probabably very few, if any, pure Homo Sapiens.

[@valen-shi3753]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned that narlugas may come back! Since that narwhal who was adopted into a pod of belugas around 2016 is reaching that age and scientists have observed the right social interactions within the pod, there's a possibility he may end up reproducing with a beluga

[@Eriorguez]

Belugas and narwhals will socialize whenever they meet, even if it is a pod of each. Social cetaceans aren't really concerned with species, and we end up with stuff like bottlenose, common and spotted dolphins making a menage a trois wherever all 3 lineages are present.

[@AllegedlyHuman]

@@Eriorguez yo, that's adorable! Thank you for blessing me with this knowledge

[@jarms99]

Great topic! As an Alaskan, this caught my eye … The map at 4:53 shows Southeast Alaska. Lots of brown bears there, especially on Admiralty Island, but ZERO polar bears. They’re limited to the high arctic in AK, so would have been better to show Arctic coast or better yet NWT, Canada, which is where the observed hybridization occurred.

[@daniellen3263]

I wonder if hybrids occurred in dinosaurs and some of the fossils we find are actually hybrids and that's why they're so weird

[@ericwright8592]

Red wolf and coyotes have also hybridized. Red wolves are nearly extinct in their home range in the Eastern US, but some reached as far west as Texas and bred with coyotes. IIRC they now constitute the largest reservoir of red wolf genetic material.

[@jaschabull2365]

I thought the red wolf turned out to be a wolf/coyote hybrid in the first place.

[@macaronsncheese9835]

@@jaschabull2365 nope! One of my college professors was a wolf expert, and actually that claim usually comes from anti red wolf propaganda. Unfortunately it's pretty successful propaganda because in the 2010s they lost some state-level protection and the nonhybrid wild red wolf population went from being in the 200s to being in the 30s...

[@fjccommish]

You mean Wolf/dog/coyotes are all the same kind?

[@jaschabull2365]

@@fjccommish They aren't distinct enough to produce infertile children when they interbreed a la mule, at any rate.

[@Vizhonary]

It's a Grolar Bear. That term has been used for a while. Only recently heard them being called Pizzly Bears, which sounds so much cuter and less dangerous than they actually are.

[@Farmerdabrown85]

Another Montana addition would be the 'Blueseed' or other hybridizations between bluegill and pumpkinseed (and other) sunfish, very pretty fish!

[@Nick-Lab]

A small correction to the naming convention is needed. The 1st name piece is from the father by convention. So the bears were actually grolar bears. It is important to distinguish because the sexe of the parents changes the offsprings phenotype drastically.

[@victoriaeads6126]

We have a very spoiled Black East Indies duck named Emma (short for Emerald, her breed is typified by being similarly colored to a male Mallard's head...all over. She's gorgeous) BEI ducks are almost certainly descended from either a Mallard melanistic variant or a hybrid.

[@sminthian]

And there's another kind of Grizzly, the Kodiak Bear. It's a larger kind of Grizzly, that eats more meat than a normal Grizzly. Which would make a supersized Pizzly Bear.

[@wasidanatsali6374]

@@Dr.IanPlect Grizzly can be used to describe any brown bear in North America. The term grizzly originated with French trappers in NA who used the French word griselles, which means sliver tipped fur, to describe the NA brown bear.

[@TheAgaskins]

@@wasidanatsali6374 when you're speaking in a scientific setting, using colloquial terms only serves to confuse. It's also incorrect in that setting, even if it may be understood by some others. Grizzlies are a specific type of bear

[@Gildedmuse]

@@TheAgaskins But then they should have used the scientific name only. They were already using the common name, and in fact Hank says, "Brown bears.... Also called Grizzly bears in America"

[@minimm2013]

THE PODIAK!!! THE KOLAR BEAR!!!

[@vi9763]

@@minimm2013 I like PODIAK, Has a nice ring to it

[@Misshowzat]

A great man once said "Just because you *can* doesn't mean you should"

[@tundralily7876]

These are actually called Groler Bears. I lived in the area these bears are being discovered Canadian Western Arctic) and they are called Groler Bears. The baby Groler bears have been seen with mother Grizzley, so the fathers are Polar Bears.

[@lotgc]

Humans: "no, you can't make hybrids between two completely different species and have it be viable!" Nature: "shut up, nerd. Watch this!" 🤓

[@Bleepbleepblorbus]

Swap it around and you've got genetic engineering

[@LilliD3]

Honestly most of these should have been originally considered the same specise from the start, just a different subspecies.

[@leogama3422]

@@LilliD3 No, actually not. That's why the "current" definition of species (there's no consensus) states that two individuals are of different species if they had diverged genetically and won't generally mate for whatever reason, i.e. because of geographical barriers, mating preferences, physical incompatibility or whatever (even if their offspring would be fertile).

[@TrineDaely]

Sometimes even Mother Nature just has settle and make the best of a bad situation.

[@lotgc]

@@TrineDaely I think we don't give her enough credit. She could probably wipe us off the face of the planet in a heartbeat if she wanted to.

[@FlyingFish766]

Interesting topic, awesome video. One mistake right at start though. Lions and tigers lived together in Gujarat (western India) up until the 20th century (when urbanization drove tigers extinct in the region and confined lions to Gir National park. They did prefer different habitats and I know of no record of a wild Liger but it’s not impossible just based on regions they inhabited.

[@jpe1]

A hybrid I’ve seen take over since I was a child is the hybrid between the golden-wing warbler and the blue-wing warbler. When I was a child, living in northeastern Pennsylvania, I would hear, and occasionally see, both species in the forest, but the last time I saw or heard a blue-wing was 2003, and it’s been even longer since I’ve seen the golden-wing, but the hybrid does show up on occasion.

[@Happ1ness]

10:59 "A whopping 39 hybrid mallard combos have been duckumented" 👀

[@RobotAnimals]

Dang that hunter with the whale skull really just accidentally ended what could’ve been a new species assuming survival of the fittest wasn’t going to end them themselves later down the line

[@Gizathecat2]

Brown bears and polar bears are very closely related. The polar bear branches out from the brown bear somewhat recently. I'm certain this new species will take hold eventual. Adaptation is a wonderful thing.

[@victornoname7269]

Animal hybrids is a super interesting topic to me. It just shows so much cool stuff about genetics when it happens. I'd love to here you guys talk about some of the weird stuff salamanders do where there's whole species complexes. If you haven't already. It's confusing and weird.

[@samkochevar983]

Hybridization is so common in ducks that many of the hybrids have their own names (mallard + gadwall = brewers duck). It’s not always mallards either. Common and Barrow’s goldeneye, American and Eurasian wigeon, blue wing and cinnamon teal, etc. Most duck hunters have either bagged a hybrid duck at some point or know someone who has. It’s always fascinating to see how different traits of each species display in the hybrid since they’re so unique

[@ethanhoard7738]

I’m glad we’re finally breaking these beariers

[@Go4Noctis]

Sounds like the mottled duck might be going through a similar experience to the neanderthal and sapiens

[@diegop2311]

I was hoping the hogs where going to show up . The wild boar in Northern California are a cool hybrid

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

Wild × feral boars for the most part are an awful, dangerous, destructive invasive species, and here we are required by law to kill them when we see them if we are hunting.

[@rockinbobokkin7831]

They probably didn't cover that because pigs are invasive and all originally came here with colonists. Pigs go feral and revert quickly back to hog form and though farm pigs can be different breeds, in the wild they tend to take on the dominant traits of black hogs. The closest native species to pigs in the Americas is probably the javellina , and I don't think they can mix with pigs.

[@wasidanatsali6374]

@@rockinbobokkin7831 Eurasian boars were imported to various hunting lodges in the US back in the 1800’s. Mostly on the East Coast. I grew up in the Smoky Mtns were quite a few Eurasian boars were imported and released. Hog hunters in this area like to argue and/or brag about how much “Russian” is in some hog they killed. When I was a kid there was a one hog limit per year in NC and hunters came from all over to hunt the “Russian” hogs. It’s hard to believe now because it’s pretty much open war on all wild hogs here now.

[@glenngriffon8032]

My high school science teacher: Hybrids are always sterile. Two species cannot make viable offspring. Science: Life, uh, finds a way.

[@Svensk7119]

Check out the book Wild Animals of North America. It talked of polar/grizzly hybrids over forty years ago, and that they were fertile! Your teacher oversimplified it far too much.... though the simplest definition of a species says it can only breed with itself. Also, look up Prezwalski's horse (pronounced Shevalski).

[@comradewindowsill4253]

@@Svensk7119 Przewalski. Properly pronounced more like p'shevalski. It's a Polish surname. The R isn't pronounced, but it does separate the first and second sounds, the same way that the sound in the middle of 'hotshot' isn't a 'ch' but a 'tsh'. That's ignoring the fact that the 'sh' represented by a Z here isn't actually a 'sh' at all, but since English doesn't actually have the correct sound, you probably can't hear the difference anyway. Not sure why the starting P tends to get dropped by English speakers though, maybe just cause that pair of sounds can't really go together in English.

[@Svensk7119]

@@comradewindowsill4253 Interesting. I hear t-sh in hotshot regardless. If I heard ch, I would presume (automatically) that Engelsk was a second language. The p is dropped for were it not, our reading instincts would take us down the wrong path completely. Prez-wall-skee, instead of p-shavalski (pzhavlski?) I cannot count the number of times I looked at it and said that first one, though I knew it was wrong. Pzhavalski. The p is hard to add. Thought it was Polish. Thanks. How many tongues speakest thou? May I ask?

[@comradewindowsill4253]

@@Svensk7119 Well, yes, you hear the tsh in hotshot, because English distinguishes between a t and sh next to one another and a ch, which is analogous to the situation in Polish for pz and prz. the first pair is like the 'ch' pair, an affricate, while the second is like 'tsh', a stop-fricative combination. The two are always different phonemes in Polish, and can be the only thing distinguishing two words from one another. I figured it was worth explaining what the silent R was about. I'm not a Polish speaker, but I speak a language in the same family and I've looked a bit at how their phonology differs from the one I'm used to. I'm a linguistics student, so this is how I entertain myself.

[@Svensk7119]

@@comradewindowsill4253 Ah. I thought you meant ch in hotshot.... I love languages, but affricate and all those other terms are things I have a hard time remembering.

[@rmdodsonbills]

I thought it was pretty remarkable to see hybridization not only outside their species but outside their own Genus. The shark example especially made me think we need to rethink our definitions of species, or at least our criteria for determining when two populations are a separate species. Another fascinating example is macaws. I'm not convinced that all of these birds are, in fact, separate species since there is so much hybridization between Blue and Gold, Greenwing, and Scarlet Macaws.

[@ambrosianapier7545]

Agreed. The scientific community doesn’t agree on what defines a species. Some are lumpers like what you mentioned and others are splitters where the smallest difference makes them consider it a new species. I’m a lumper myself.

[@lashedbutnotleashed1984]

Macaws only hybridize in captivity when humans keep the different species together. They are definitely different species, and do not hybridize in the wild.

[@sparking023]

I think the distinction occurs based on statistics. it's clear that these species have enough genetic compatibility and the potential to hybridize, but if that happens 1 in 500 matings of the species as a whole, I don't think it should weight that much in determining a species. as it is the case for the iguanas and the bears, the environments some specimen are gives more chances to hybridization, but it doesn't seems to be a rule

[@epsilonius-the-great]

I live in the NW USA. We actually have many cases of cross breeding between subspecies of aquatic garter snake. Often times you can find a cross between an Oregon garter and a Santa Cruz garter snake. These hybrids often have the signature dorsal stripe of the Santa Cruz garter, but often that stripe fades away as it goes down the spine, resulting in up to 3/4 patternless snakes. These hybrids are also found across the range of both species, from northern California to Southern Washington

[@sonyasandoval1477]

There are several Mallard hybrids at one of the parks in my town. Some also show varying degrees of melanism-quite striking!

[@masterimbecile]

As a wise man once said: “Life… uh… finds a way.”

[@_Leafrin]

Including Humans.

[@leogama3422]

If you're from the countryside you wold very well know that...

[@washkabe9179]

I always heard them referred to as "grolar bears", not "pizzly bears"

[@TheOverproof151]

You are correct….. they are known as Grolars and only uninformed idiots refer to them otherwise.

[@shadow81818]

It's based on which animal is the mother! In this specific case, we know that the mother was a polar bear, so her species name is put first in the hybrid name

[@JaxxVs]

Depends on the father mother sich.. but you are correct as that would be a grolar bear as a pizzly bear is a male polar bear and a female grizzly

[@washkabe9179]

@@shadow81818 Oh, so it's like ligers and tygons

[@thelonesage3146]

Grolar sounds better to me.

[@undrsk0re]

I love it when the pizzly bear said "it's pizzling time" and pizzled all over the place

[@turkeygod6665]

good comment

[@lashedbutnotleashed1984]

I thought it cheapened the whole production. To each his own, I guess.

[@lillianreid1878]

I didn't know all the Grolar bears were hunted down. That's a bummer. But it is pretty cool when they discover a hybrid species that's well underway and pretty well established like those sharks.

[@sunnijo]

Lots of snakes with overlapping ranges hybridize, too! Cottonmouths with copperheads and gopher snakes with fox snakes are great examples. I recently learned that a lot of different colubrid snake species are capable of hybridizing, and I think that’s really amazing.

[@douglasgriffiths3534]

Some pythons can too. Example--Burmese python with Indian rock python. They are subspecies of each other. Another is the Burmball-- Burmese x ball python. Still another is a Reticburm---Burmese x reticulated python. I've seen all 3 hybrids. The Indian rock x Burmese is fertile;the other 2 are sterile. (Jan Griffiths).

[@douglasgriffiths3534]

And all subspecies of boa constrictor can hybridize, and produce viable and fertile offspring. (Jan Griffiths).

[@comradewindowsill4253]

Cottonmouths and Copperheads... I wonder if the venom is as potent as the parents', or more?

[@tamaradavis2276]

Count on humans to hunt anything unique and unusual and mess things up with domestication. I'm a huge fan of feral Rock Pigeons because they are a prime example in North America of domestication fighting back.

[@oogabooga6346]

Have you met the feral chickens of Hawaii?

[@rsmzm2000]

If anyone here has ever had ducks... You'll understand. Male ducks mate with ANYTHING that moves. Period.

[@massimookissed1023]

They'll even mate with things that *_don't_* move, as in _dead_ female ducks.

[@Flesh_Wizard]

The ducks invented duck Viagra

[@marachime]

Hank i really appreciate the quotation marks you vocally put around 'unicorns of the sea'. I feel this indicates you are quoting the Weebl song about it, and this makes me happy.

[@HavasuHorror]

That polar bear had a grizzly kink!

[@dirtpathart]

Love your show! Keep putting out good content. I did a deeper dive and…In India, both lions and tigers can be found in the same general areas. Though currently, not much interaction has been seen. Historically, tigers and lions did overlap more extensively in parts of southern and Western Asia. So hybrids were a remote but not entirely impossible scenario in the wild.

[@petitio_principii]

There has been a long history of hybridization between multiple big cats. In the scientific article "Genome-wide signatures of complex introgression and adaptive evolution in the big cats" the researchers report to have found that lions have had the most admixture, with multiple other big-cats. The research also includes stuff from when the lineages were first diverging and so forth, so not only "not so recent" admixture in India, but something that's, while rare in short term, "common" in the long term scale.

[@NatTalyx]

We have a big issue with praying mantis hybridizing in New Zealand. Our Native Mantis have pretty blue markings which the invasive species are attracted to and are breeding them out of existence 😭

[@lashedbutnotleashed1984]

Where is the invasive mantis from? I hope you don't say the United States.

[@katherinejustine1]

@@lashedbutnotleashed1984 China

[@orchardhouse9241]

The really weird part is that some of these animals that hybridize aren't in the same genus.

[@internetfasting80085]

genetic compatibility > man made categories ;-)

[@jimivey6462]

🎶 If you can’t be with the bear you love, Love the bear you’re with. Love the bear you’re with 🎶

[@Tirryna]

Was fully expected the coywolf to be here...Those guys are interesting and a bit intimidating. Wolves and Coyotes have started breeding in Eastern Canada (odd since Coyotes are usually KOS for Wolves). Coywolves also breed with each other and have started migrating south into the USA. Scientists say human activity most likely caused them to do this.

[@huldu]

It's good to know that we humans are on point eliminating everything out of the ordinary.

[@sapphirII]

I was wondering if you talk about the chain of seven species of lizard that can interbreed with the lizards before and after them, except for the one at the beginning and the end of of the chain.

[@amandajones661]

I really want to see a video about this. 😃

[@jaschabull2365]

I've heard of a similar chain of bird species in which each one can interbreed with the adjacent population, except for one pair which seem to constitute the "ends" of the chain.

[@jaschabull2365]

@@Dr.IanPlect Ahh yes. I think the instance I heard of was songbirds instead, with each population having a slightly different song until the 2 end species had songs unintelligible to each other, meaning they wouldn't interbreed.

[@sapphirII]

@@amandajones661 I found the mention of the ring species. (What makes a species a species from SciShow) kzbin.info/www/bejne/mp_JkpyAf9Otmqc

[@3ron]

Ring species

[@danielm.1441]

"When you think of hybrid animals, there are a few examples that probably come to mind, like mules or ligers. But both of those hybrids couldn't exist without humans. For example, lions & tigers, they do not live in the same places..." Well they don't _anymore_ - historical ranges of both lions & tigers used to encompass the majority of the Indian subcontinent & regions around the Caucuses & southern Caspian sea, so historical hybridisation was _possible_ in principle. Similarly horses & donkeys (well, their wild ancestors) used to have overlapping ranges in north Africa. Potentially humans merely reinvented hybrids that nature previously dabbled with...

[@tedalexander6592]

Loved that y'all used a shot of a Mallard on Carroll Creek in Downtown Frederick Maryland!!!

[@loviswild]

I am Not 100% Sure but I think the problem of the interbreeding of ducks is also a problem of the black bee(apis apis) in Northern Europe because of the cultivation of the bees of Austria because of more honey producing.

[@8sanks]

We don't have lions and tigers in one place today, thanks to hunting, but they have co-existed in jungles of India and ligers have been known to naturally occur in rare instances.

[@nebulan]

NARLUGA! That's gonna be my next d&d characters name

[@herpermike_]

I kinda think that a lot of the stuff that people think of as hybrids, should really be considered intergrades instead lol! I'm mostly more familiar with the subspecies and species of reptiles especially, but a lot of people seem to just jump right in and say that grey ratsnakes are making hybrids with the yellow ratsnakes lol! But in truth, The subspecies often breed within the intergrade area that they are commonly found in lol

[@comradewindowsill4253]

the amount of lols you used here feels like the text equivalent of the serial killer grin

[@herpermike_]

@@comradewindowsill4253 I use lol as punctuation lol

[@comradewindowsill4253]

@@herpermike_ the exclamation mark is punctuation, and yet if you overuse that it gives much the same impression

[@herpermike_]

@@comradewindowsill4253 actually a period, question mark, exclamation point, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, brackets, braces, parentheses, apostrophe, quotation mark, and ellipsis are all examples of punctuation in the English language! Not just the exclamation point lol! Try again smart ass! But try again, this is kinda fun lol! Lol But I'm gonna go to bed soon lol so I will have to play some more later lol

[@herpermike_]

@@comradewindowsill4253 what I was trying to convey is that I use lol as a stop between thoughts or a buffer in my thoughts lol señior window sill commode!

[@peridotqueen26]

Warming temps are also pushing Carolina and black-capped chickadees to hybridize more often and farther north where their ranges overlap in the northeastern US! Their hybridization zone is fairly narrow, which makes it easier to study their hybridization than many species in this video.

[@D4Mathur]

Hank, Tigers and Lions did historically have overlapping habitats in central India, and did so well into 1800s. There are many local stories of their hybrids, though none documented by westerners, and hence not considered official.

[@Shria9]

I have seen and photographed a snow goose and Canada goose hybrid with it's parents in a flock of Canada geese at a local park. It had some faded Canada goose markings on a mostly gray body. Also, I wonder if randy ancient human males getting it on with Neanderthal females on the side could have contributed to Neanderthal extinction like randy mallard boys are pressuring the gene pools of spotted and black ducks in Florida.

[@lashedbutnotleashed1984]

Some scientists think it's possible the Neanderthals were simply bred out of existence by Homo Sapiens.

[@Shria9]

@@lashedbutnotleashed1984 I believe that makes a lot of sense and deserves some research.

[@AmythefirstA]

That's racist.

[@819driver]

i thought the same thing, watch someone make a video about that in 2023

[@cassieoz1702]

In Australia dingo x dog hybrids are more common now than pure dingos

[@frogz]

in america, we have our own dingo dogs, my friend bas a BEAUTIFUL carolina dog(american dingo) coyote hybrid, i've never met her but she is such the goodest of girls!

[@cassieoz1702]

@@frogz oh Carolinas are so beautiful and definitely have the same 'look'

[@pierreabbat6157]

What kind of dog is the Mbabaram dog? What kind of dog was the gudaga?

[@tehkaihong5328]

@@SimuLord normal domestic dogs do.

[@michaelhowell2326]

Lions and tigers do overlap in the wild. There are a few places in India that they mate naturally.

[@Dr3amW1zard]

Duck mating being described as a highway on-ramp is downright hilarious lol

[@kevinjordan6677]

Cool video hank referenced " arctic islands" the map shown was of southeast Alaska Juneau and Sitka thats pretty far south for a polar bear

[@0011peace]

the best known hybrid is the Mule/Jenny Hybrid of horse and donkey. There is some speculation of possible hybris huma/chimp humanzee/chuman

[@lashedbutnotleashed1984]

The words "speculation" and "possible" are not very scientific. There is not one shred of evidence that humans can produce offspring with chimps. And it's not for lack of trying. There's a lot of sickos in this world.

[@0011peace]

@@lashedbutnotleashed1984 actually. specuation and prosiile are sicncetific is surities thay are unscienctific. Scince work by trying to fiprove theories tht are believe to be the truth. And, about the asoluteness of anything. YOu have more chance of getting a ybrid in a labthan by sickos but still no proof. But lack of evidence dorsn't dis[prove anything. For a long time we though cpolefiush were exticnct becaus we seen them in the ancient fossile record but found no living or recently dead. But then they one them aliveand doing well. The giant oc\topus was once thought to be a myth until discoverd.

[@lashedbutnotleashed1984]

@@0011peace How did you get so many misspellings in one post? That must be some kind of record. Most people have spellcheck. You must have MISspell check. It makes sure your words are all spelled wrong. At any rate, the existence of an animal previously thought to be extinct has nothing to do with the possible hybridization of different species. Humans and chimpanzees cannot hybridize. That is a proven fact that has nothing to do with speculation. That is science.

[@Hi_Im_Akward]

I'm really excited that you did this video. This subject came up recently and it's been bugging me, how it fits into what we know about evolution. Id be especially excited if there ever was evidence of it in fossils but maybe that isn't possible. It would be great if you cover a more in depth video about canine species, and specifically wolf, cyote, fox and dog and how those hybrids intermingle.

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

Well, yes, there is evidence. In fact, had the skull that hunter kept had instead been buried and become fossilized, it would clearly be another example of the hybridization of a pair of species. It's often very hard to draw the line in the fossil record to say X is species A and Y is species B. As for where it fits in to what we know about evolution? You need to realize that the term "species" is very loose & a bit nonspecific. It's really just an imaginary set of boxes we put critters into, to separate and name them. You see from this video (and more) that life doesn't really care about our dividing lines, and as the saying goes, it uh... finds a way. 😉

[@FlyingDwarfman]

It shows up in the fossil record; even for us Homo sapiens with other (now-extinct) species in the Homo genus. I remember when genomics was starting to find frequent hybridization, it sparked a lot of debate on the lines separating different species; including but not exclusively us sapiens and our neandertal cousins.

[@Hi_Im_Akward]

@@FlyingDwarfman oh, that's interesting. I knew about Neanderthal DNA but I didn't know they had found other possible hybrids. I am not up to date on what is possible for extracting DNA from fossils. I am under the impression that it's possible only so far back and under certain conditions. Hybrids bring to mind for me some "transitional" fossils that have and made me wonder if it's possible they were actually hybrid.

[@luismurcia1702]

i wonder if other humans disappear in a similar fashion to how the mallards ducks are taking over other ducks

[@819driver]

your comment made me think of the neandertals... maybe that's what happened

[@Patrick_The_Pure]

"If there's a hole there's a goal" - Mallard Ducks probably.

[@patmcgrowin3414]

Polar Bear mama had to raise her mixed bear cubs on her own.

[@dmanzawsome]

How many years has hank been doing this, its crazy he is still hosting episodes

[@calladricosplays]

I'm surprised that Clymene dolphins, a true breeding hybrid of spinner and striped dolphins, weren't mentioned

[@DavidMacDowellBlue]

i am a little surprised you did not mention the vastly successful coy wolves.

[@The_Slavstralian]

Also in Australia we have another natural hybrid in our carpet pythons In northern NSW. We get the Diamond python habitat overlapping with the Coastal carpet python and nothing being Morelia they can interbreed. We call them integrades in the reptile hobby

[@tsbrownie]

The only thing shocking about this video is the lack of human / animal hybrids.

[@SciShow]

Thanks to Bespoke Post for sponsoring this video! Head to www.bespokepost.com/scishow20 and use code SCISHOW20 to grab your “box of awesome” and get 20% off your first box.

[@shivpatel5413]

❤Hmmm.😌♥️😢Love me sim BEAR MEAT AND GREET MEAL HVBPUB ÿt@hoO csl🎉

[@ki641]

Glizzy bear 🐻

[@KAT1987.TopAnimalsMoments]

Fun fact hybrid animals are recorded in earth history. Example of this would be elephants family tree where different species of elephants/mammoths mate creating hybrid s

[@thepapa5746]

There were also sightings of wild hybrid antelopes in Africa, such as a hybrid of waterbuck and red lechwe, and a hybrid of a kudu and eland.

[@healthtoday602]

Cross breeding is a part of evolution so yes here are… the species you see today are mostly a mix of many different archaic and prehistoric species into what we see it today. They have recently discovered the narluga in 2019

[@bigkorean8439]

Cross breeding is a part of evolution so yes here are… the species you see today are mostly a mix of many different archaic and prehistoric species into what we see it today. They have recently discovered the narluga in 2019

[@oimeoitv8257]

If male ligers weren't sterile we would probably get a new Species in the wild. Real question would they hunt solo like tigers or in packs like lions? Dog/ Wolf hybrid can breed with another dog/wolf hybrid with no problem.

[@erickbowling3011]

Actually, the polar bear population has doubled since 2006.

[@RayVinzant]

I once saw a mallard-pintail hybrid when my dad shot it down with a shotgun when I was on a duck hunting trip in Juneau, Alaska. It was likely female and looked like a normal small female mallard with a pintail beak. We called it a pin-mallard.

[@puchoshmateo]

amazing

[@kristendelgado7933]

This really means that polar bears and grizzly bears were always the same species of bear with different physical traits. If the offspring that result from their mating are fertile and can produce viable young, they are the same species. I think we need to be consistent in science. Humans also have subpopulations with wide phenotypic variations, but we are all the same species. We cannot use a different set of criteria when evaluating other types of animals than the one we use for ourselves.

[@bunjistee]

Sure but it's almost impossible to always be consistent when putting spices into boxes, someone will always break the mold.

[@kirkmorrison6131]

It would have been great to have Bear Grylls to discuss the Grizzly/ Polar Bear crossing s

[@kirkmorrison6131]

@@dwavenminer Yep, but I still would want to see it, just to see his face.

[@syd.a.m]

Especially since it was called a pizzly bear.

[@kirkmorrison6131]

@@syd.a.m Yep, I crack up at that name, it is just too funny.

[@heartofdawn2341]

I think we should have called them Bolar bears, and then given them dapper little hats.

[@acem82]

12:45 The ducks don't worry about whether or not the species goes "extinct". If they care about anything at all, they care that their genes are passed on. If they were able to foresee that their genes would just become what we call "Mallards", they wouldn't care. Basically, don't assume the species itself is a real thing that can worry. It can't. The individual ducks can (in as much as a bird can "worry", I guess).

[@therongjr]

It's good they could perform genetic analysis on that narluga skull, because otherwise I got strong "Piltdown man" vibes.

[@nicholaslewis8594]

Not an expert, but the isotope test probably would have caught if it was a piltdown man too (not criticizing you, it’s just really cool that there are more tools to identify frauds these days).

[@ElaMongrella]

I mean, if it were a cat and a dog, I'd be more surprised, than when it's two different types of bear. There was once a fly-away budgie here, that mingled with a flock of sparrows outside our house, and the next spring there were green sparrows, so even that seems to be a thing.

[@lashedbutnotleashed1984]

You are fibbing. No way a budgie can interbreed with a sparrow. They are not nearly closely related enough. And they also nest and raise their offspring in entirely different ways.

[@ElaMongrella]

@@lashedbutnotleashed1984 All I know is that we had green sparrows. I can't say how they happened or if it was the budgie, true. But it was strange.

[@lashedbutnotleashed1984]

@@ElaMongrella Green sparrows. Uh huh. It's seems unlikely since there are no species of sparrow that are green.

[@ElaMongrella]

@@lashedbutnotleashed1984 Of course there are. Just weird that they showed up suddenly at that time. But it could be coincidence, yeah. Not ruling that out.

[@lashedbutnotleashed1984]

@@ElaMongrella You may want to look up "sparrows" on the internet. Sparrows have an assortment of brown, black and white feathers, depending on the species. But never do they have green feathers. Maybe it was those 5 shots of Jack Daniels you took that day.

[@JaxxVs]

1) you used a photo of Levi which is great 2) I wish you could have contacted me.. I could have provided amazing photos of hybrids 3) they don't live in the same places ANYMORE, we stopped their process of hybridizing which is EVOLUTION.. that is how EVOLUTION WORKS every..single..bit of it We started documenting animals only about 200 or so years ago that makes our entire view of them a snapshot of about 2000 years It took millions of years for humans to appear.. Why wouldn't a liger eventually show up in the wild if they WERE STILL in the same place? and NOT REMOVED by HUMANS not Nature. Male Lion (who roams and may have multiple prides or overlapping space with a female tiger and fudges off when a horny teen after getting kicked out) + Female tiger who smells just like a lion in heat. There is no difference to them.. nor to the shape of their woohas and whatnots. only on the surface a color variation = Liger The concept of animals not intermingling should actually be in a bucket with adam and eve 4) We do the idea and concept of evolution a HUGE disservice by considering hybrids "abominations" or "man made" We destroy but don't replace? We preserve and conserve without the conceptual thought of how things actually progress through life and into its own future.. We hit pause. for everything except us. 5) Lions and Tigers mate without poking or prodding with no problems its naturally don't. Manmade implies intervention. There is none. They just get busy and do the do... 6) i love you my guy..you are awesome.. 7) Thanks for reading my nobody cares talk toodles =D

[@nicholaslewis8594]

Not denying they interbreed, but often there’s some sort of line to at least keep them separate enough to continue to exist as two things with different characteristics (even if it isn’t 100%).

[@JaxxVs]

​@@nicholaslewis8594 there is some sort of line? i dont think lines work in evolution.. I think if you can draw a line you will always miss the mark.. it is too scattered and spattered.. some would interbreed some wont..but right now it is impossible because of people and people alone. not them .

[@TheStarlightKing]

For the longest time, the only duck I ever saw in South Florida were Muscovy Ducks. It's only been recently (past 3 years) that I've Mallard ducks there.

[@RandomNooby]

This hybridisation is a direct result of us forcing Polar bears south, and grizzlies north.

[@Kristoph-69-69]

Tucker Carlson must be very Angry about this.

[@JRenardLeatherCo]

that one polar bear showed that (regardless of species) some white girls just have a thing for brown guys 😂!