Hunter shoots mystery blonde Arctic bear

SACHS HARBOR, Northwest Territories, April 27 (UPI) -- Investigators are trying to determine if a dirty blonde bear shot by a U.S. hunter in Arctic Canada is a polar bear, a grizzly or a cross between them.

Jim Martell had a permit to hunt polar bear when he went out with a guide in the Northwest Territories. He spotted the bear north of Sachs Harbor, about 900 miles north of Yellowknife, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

"Well, the guide, he said 'shoot', and he's a longtime guide there in Sachs Harbour and he knows what a polar bear is," said Martell.

If Martell's bear is a grizzly, he could be fined or even jailed for killing one without a permit.

While grizzlies and polar bears have mated in zoos and produced offspring, such match-ups are unlikely in the wild.

"The probability of a grizzly and a polar bear actually mating is actually pretty low, partly because polar bears mate on the sea ice and grizzly bears mate on the land," said Ian Sterling, a research scientist specializing in polar bears.

Sterling said the hide of Martell's bear is like nothing he has seen in 30 years of investigating the bear population in the Beaufort Sea.