7 Hybrid Animals Born of Climate Change and Their Adaptive Traits

These 7 hybrid animals exhibit differences from their original species in terms of both physical characteristics and the adaptive traits that allow them to cope with climate change.

Scientists have been able to identify them in the wild over the past few years thanks to subtle variations in their features, and they now think that some of them are the result of climate change.

Born of Climate Change

Due to the Arctic's rapidly melting sea ice and the need for previously isolated species to move to new habitats for hunting, a 2010 study identified 34 potential hybrid species that may become common there.

As a result, they are encountering one another, mate, and create new hybrids that may eventually eliminate the original species from the gene pool. The said study by Kelly, Whiteley, and Tallmon was published in the journal Nature.

MailOnline listed eight of the hybrids currently roaming the earth, some, scientists say are products of climate change.

1. 'Brolar' Bears from brown bears and polar bears

Brown bears mating with polar bears may have given birth to a hybrid species in the past, according to evidence discovered in Canada and the United States. They are called "Brolar bears" or "Pizzlies" and have mostly white coats with brownish undertones. Their noses resemble those of brown or grizzly bears and polar bears.

Adaptive Trait. Brolar bars, which do not rely as heavily on sea ice for hunting as their Arctic relatives, are known to be better suited to warmer climates.

Because of the shifting terrain, polar bears have been moving inland in search of more food. Due to the two species' overlapping habitats, brown bears and polar bears now encounter each other as a result of the warming climate, which allows them to hunt further north.

Grizzly bears, unlike polar bears, are well adapted to consuming tough foods such as plant tubers. They are also able to scavenge carcasses when food is scarce.

This indicates that brown bears are better able than polar bears to adapt to a changing diet and environment, which may help preserve the polar gene.

2. 'Narlugas' from narwhals and beluga whales

A hunter in West Greenland came across an intriguing skull in 1990 that appeared to be a beluga-narwhal hybrid.

It wasn't until 2019 that DNA testing proved the creature was, in fact, 46% narwhal from its mother and 54% beluga from its father.

According to experts, the hybrid might have been grey in color and had a narwhal-like tail but beluga whale-like forward flippers.

Adaptive Trait. Carbon isotopes found in the collagen of the skull's bone also showed that the 'narluga' probably hunted closer to the ocean floor than usual compared to belugas and narwhals.

Because they are more likely to collide as a result of melting sea ice, the study from 2010, published in Nature, lists it as a potential consequence of climate change.

The apparent narwhal-beluga hybrid was found in Greenland; it had teeth that combined the best traits of both species, but it lacked the tusk that is a key factor in narwhal breeding success.

3. 'Coywolves' from coyotes and Eastern wolves

Coywolves, a type of coyote-wolf hybrid, have been spotted in eastern North America for many years.

When coyotes expanded their range from the west into Ontario's Algonquin Park in the 1920s, it is believed that this is where they first appeared in Canada.

Eastern wolves were confined to this particular park because the area they could inhabit was shrinking as Europeans colonized the country at the same time.

Coywolves, which are now found all along the East Coast, was created when the two species crossed and were formally described by scientists in 1969.

Adaptive Trait. They can hunt white-tailed deer in North America because they are larger than western coyotes in terms of their body, skull, and jaw.

Although they are a more resilient species than wolves and have shown they can adapt to changing landscapes by living in both urban and rural areas, coywolves are not a result of climate change.

4. 'Harbour-Dall' porpoise from Harbour porpoises and Dall's porpoises

The hybrid offspring of the harbour porpoise and the Dall's porpoise is also mentioned in the 2010 Nature paper. Off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, hybrids of the two have been discovered, and the low harbour porpoise populations in the area have been blamed for this. Because of habitat disturbance, which is thought to be contributing to their decline, the males may start mating with different species.

According to the BC Cetacean Sightings Network, the hybrids typically resemble harbour porpoises but appear to behave very much like Dall's porpoises by bow-riding as well as surfacing quickly.

Adaptive Traits. A Harbour-Dall porpoise that had reached full term and was stranded in 2011 on San Juan Island was unusual because hybrid species are typically born sterile.

As temperatures rise, experts predict that harbour porpoises will migrate north, increasing their chances of mating with Dall's porpoises.

Similar hybridization may take place as the species interact in newly colonized Arctic habitats, according to the researchers.

5. The harp seal and hooded seal cross

Due to the melting sea ice, many species of Arctic seals are anticipated to breed and produce hybrid offspring.

This includes a hybrid of the hooded and harp seals, which breed on the North Atlantic Ocean's pack ice and migrate into the Arctic Ocean during the summer.

The hooded seal is generally white with black spots, while the harp seal is silver in color with a black face and a distinctive black pattern on its back.

A hybrid animal was discovered in the Canadian Gulf of St. Lawrence and was formally reported in 1997 as published in the journal Marine Mammal Science.

Adaptive Trait. Even though not all inter-species matings result in offspring, the likelihood is higher for Arctic species. The reason for this, according to the 2010 study's authors, is that their chromosome count hasn't changed much over time.

6. 'Bowhead-right whale' from Bowhead whales and Right whales

David Withrow from NOAA discovered a bowhead whale and right whale calf in the Bering Sea in 2009. One whale was larger and much wider than a grey whale, but it also had barnacle-like growths on its rostrum, lacked a dorsal fin, and had a bowhead-like general shape.

His colleagues from the US East Coast, who work with Atlantic right whales regularly, were certain there was some right whale in this hybrid animal based in part on the size and shape of the blowhole and the large structure right in front of the blowhole

Adaptive Trait. According to a 2010 study, as sea ice melts, right whales are likely to migrate further north to the Arctic, where they will encounter and mate with more bowheads.

7. North American flying squirrels from northern flying squirrels and southern flying squirrels

Inbreeding between southern and northern flying squirrels have been studied by scientists in Ontario, Canada, and its connection to global warming.

Around 1995, hybrids of the two began to appear, according to Dr. Jeff Bowman of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.

In a paper that was published in the 2009 edition of the journal Global Change Biology, he and his team described how a string of warm winters had led southern flying squirrels to migrate into northern habitats, where they were now mating with northern flying squirrels.

Adaptive Trait. Approximately 4% of flying squirrels born nearby are hybrids, which have the body type of the southern species. The grey-and-white belly fur came from the northern species, MailOnline reports.