As two species driven together by climate change, grizzlies will likely win out
As climate change pushes polar bears and grizzly bears into competition for food, increasingly requiring them to share a habitat, polar bears will probably lose out, according to a new study from evolutionary biologists at the University of California, Los Angeles. Using 3D computer modeling, researchers compared the skull and jaw strength of the two bear species and found polar bears aren’t suited to the tougher chewing demands of the mostly vegetarian diet that grizzlies observe. “This is one additional piece of evidence that things look pretty bleak for the polar bear, if current trends continue,” lead author Graham Slater told Reuters. Grizzlies, a subspecies of brown bears, are moving north in Canada as their habitat warms up, and polar bears are moving south as the ice melts. But the territory they’re finding themselves in is more suited to the grizzly.