Grolar bears (also known as pizzly bears or prizzly bears, or in the Seekers universe, mixed bears or brown-and-white bears) are a hybrid between grizzly bears and polar bears.
Characteristics[]
- Grolar bears are usually creamy colored, smudged with russet or brown, though they can be almost completely white or brown with polar/grizzly features. They have thick fur and long claws. Their bodies are smaller than that of polar bears, but larger than grizzlies, while their heads fall between the broader grizzly head and the leaner polar bear.
- They have long necks like polar bears, but small shoulder humps like grizzlies. The soles of their feet are partially covered in hair. They also have humped backs like grizzlies, a trait with polar bears lack. Hybrids born in zoos have shown their behavior is more similar to polar bears than grizzlies.
- When given toys, they would rear and come crashing down on it, like polar bears do to crack ice concealing seal pups. They also hurled sacks to the side as polar bears may throw prey.
- When both items were given to grizzlies, it was shown that grizzlies show less or no such behavior. Also, they lay down like polar bears, on their stomachs with their back legs splayed out.
- In the Seekers universe, grolar bears have a mix of different polar bear and grizzly features, such as an entirely brown or white pelt with the longer or shorter muzzle of the other species, fur patched with brown and white, or the smooth shoulders of polar bears. They also have a mix of skills, such as Nanulak's ability to scent snow before Toklo, a brown bear, could.
History[]
In the Return to the Wild arc[]
Island of Shadows []
- Nanulak appears in Island of Shadows. His mother is a grizzly bear and his father is a polar bear. A family of three grolar bears point the Seekers in the right direction, though Nanulak is rude to them. Other grolar bears are mentioned, with Tikaani even explaining to Toklo that brown and polar bears occasionally produce cubs together.
The Melting Sea[]
- Nanulak is briefly mentioned when Toklo thought it was good that he wasn't with them.
River of Lost Bears[]
- When Toklo considers Chenoa journeying with them, he hesitates when he thinks about Nanulak, and wonders if Chenoa is like him.
The Longest Day[]
- Toklo finds Nanulak talking to Aiyanna and tries to set him straight, but he attacks him and they accidentally knock over a flat-face thing, starting fire. Nanulak returns while the bears seek shelter, and Toklo fights him again, until Nanulak falls and cracks his skull on a rock. Toklo tries to save him, but a burning tree falls between them.
Named Grolar Bears[]
Trivia[]
- Canadian wildlife officials have suggested calling the hybrid "Nanulak"; which is the name of the only named grolar bear in the Seekers series.