Science: A Bear Named Gene

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In their wild state, polar bears and Alaskan brown bears do not mate. For one thing, polar bears live on arctic ice, brown bears on solid ground. They also belong to different species. So when a male polar bear cub named Snow White and a female brown bear cub named Ramona were put together in a cage at the Washington Zoo more than ten years ago, the animal experts did not expect much to happen.

But propinquity and persistence eventually triumphed over zoology. Snow White and Ramona produced two litters of cubs, four of which lived. At first they were white like their father, later turned brown like their mother. As they grew into big bears, their color faded to a compromise buff.

The experts were still bearish about any hope of posterity. Hybrids- with parents of different species—e.g., mules—are almost always sterile. Since they receive different kinds of chromosomes from their parents, they do not grow into reproductive adults.

Nonetheless, the four hybrid bears were paired off. Last month the two couples confounded the experts by producing a litter each. One cub lived, nursed from an Evenflow bottle on a diet of Esbilac (a Borden animal formula). Last week he weighed more than five pounds and was starting to open his eyes. Washington's Zoomen named him Gene, just to needle the geneticists. They watched him with pride and hope and designs on his chromosomes. If Gene proves fertile, he could be the Adam of a wholly new race of bears.