First seen in the wild in 2006, this polar bear-grizzly hybrid "is more resilient to climate change and better suited for warmer temperatures," according to paleontologist Larisa DeSantis of . Nine have been reported since 2006. I think the one thing we know for sure is that the grizzly populations across the Yukon and Nunavut are very healthy. Dr. ROCKWELL: I will going back, the end of May, for the 42nd year. In 1935, two polar bears and a kodiak were housed together, and mated, producing the grizzly-polar bear hybrid. Live Science is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. She said that the diet of polar bears is in danger in a warming world. It's not a true hibernation, but it's a really deep sleep. Bears also come to feast on the remains of bowhead whales taken by Inupiaq hunters. The bear's sister Tips escaped from the enclosure. But, with that all being said, could the pizzly allow for bears to continue to exist in intermediate regions of the Arctic? As we soaked it all in, formulating our plan on where to go next, a familiar phrase was uttered again: What is that? A quick glance revealed a dark-colored object moving across the sea ice. So we don't know if if hybridization will continue, will increase, will decline. Astronomers Discover Origins of Sun's Mysterious, Repetitive Radio Bursts. They possess features that give them an edge to survive the warming temperatures of the Arctic region. Biologist Richard Shideler, who headed Alaskas North Slope Grizzly Project for three decades until recently, when Kerry Nicholson took over, has seen five or six grizzlies that were as light or even lighter than the bear Luke and Kiah saw. As we approached, it was evident that it was a large brown bear, chasing what appeared to be a smaller polar bear. Derocher, a professor of ecology at the University of Alberta, would later learn that the bear was the first known grizzly bearpolar bear hybrid found in the wild. In 2018, Doug Clark of the University of Saskatchewan, was part of a research team that documented with trail cameras all three species of North American bears using the same area. They have a mostly white coat but with a brownish hue and a nose that looks . They could really do some damage, and if you think about it, if they didn't have some behaviors that would allow them to not be aggressive, to sort of back off in a schoolyard-bully-confrontation kind of thing, the species would quickly wipe themselves out. Fast forward two years later and we were back in Wyniatt Bay for the final year of our research program. I expect that it will increase because we are increasing the frequency that these two bears are coming together. Biologists have never documented polar bears and grizzlies interbreeding in Alaska but, with the Arctic rapidly warming, that might soon change. And they're coming into increased contact and occasionally mating. So when it gets too crowded for them, they sort of move out. Paleontologist and biological sciences assistant professor Larisa DeSantis pointed out that typically hybrid animals are not better suited to their environments than their parents, but they could potentially forage for a broader range of food. Hybrids had been previously observed by Inuit in this part of the Canadian Arctic and this little bear fit the bill. From all appearances, the female bear appeared to be the same bear we had last observed scrambling up the rock slope almost two years to the day previously. They are a product of two different species of bears that are driven to mate by climate change. (Polar bears are famously difficult to study because of their isolated habitats.) This polar bear-grizzly hybrid, first seen . Since 2006, there have been eight hybrids verified after being killed or captured. In fact, its easier to describe the few foods that they dont eat rather than what they do, says Servheen, now a professor of wildlife conservation at the University of Montana. It had a really big rump and a long neck and hydrodynamic shape. A possible grizzly-polar bear hybrid has been shot by a hunter in northern Canada. Does that make them their own species? You have to see the hump, and you have to see the face, which on a grizzly bear is sort of flat. and Sonya Lunder, Mild winters and energy-intensive snowmaking are in a positive feedback loop, False ideas about whats natural have driven bigotry for too long, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming seek to expand hunting to keep populations to bare minimum. With the changing climate, polar bears are moving south in search of food, and grizzly bears are moving north in search of cooler climes. The most likely answer isno. The polar bears have a slightly different lifestyle. We don't know how many pizzlies there are. When polar bears and grizzly bears mate, the hybrid is called a pizzly bear, or a grolar bear. They're pretty closely related to one another in the grand scheme of things. For example, genetic work on brown bears demonstrated that brown bears on Admiralty, Baranof, and Chichagof Islands in Alaska contain up to 8.8% polar bear ancestry. As sea ice thins, starving polar bears are forced to travel further to the south where they meet grizzly bears who are also expanding their territory northwards, according to Live Science. Is it just because they heard there was good real estate prices, or what's going on? I mean, the Hudson Bay isn't the kind of place that you would be totally surprised to find grizzly bears. Dr. ROCKWELL: Well, I think at this stage, it's a little premature to say. Home | Contact | RSS | Donate | Newsletter. Scientists are studying how well these hybrids are suited for life in the wild. At the top, we could see to the horizon in every direction, looking out over the vast areas of sea ice that are so critical to the polar bears existence. Grizzlies can eat whatever they want, she said. But you're absolutely right, you know, they can produce these fertile hybrids, that's really interesting. Why his particular male left his den early to pursue potential mates is anyone's guess, but a small tissue sample from him would prove to be very informative. Copyright 2023 The Science Times. Do We Have to Choose? Two thousand nine, we actually saw I saw three myself, and there was a fourth one reported in the area. As the effects of climate change worsen, we may start to see more and more grizzly and polar bear hybrids. PALCA: Wow, that's amazing. This would make her offspring 75% brown bear and 25% polar bear. Soren: Breaking Bad News Bears and, uh, we've got three bear stories so far and maybe, I, you know, maybe this is the moment I should admit that everybody broke for bears. Indeed, the genetic work I mentioned shows that hybridization can and has occurred in the past, but that hybrids dont persist over the long term. Last chance They have pretty good-sized territories, and they gradually expand into more habitat that has food that grizzly bears like, which includes all sorts of microtines. All right, well, we have a lot of people who do want to talk grizzlies, and so let's go to the phones and talk first to John(ph) in Kansas City. The last research team to check up on the polar bears in this area was there in the mid-1990s. More often than not, two animals come in contact while hunting, for example at whale carcass sites, and interact, and they seem to be increasingly engaging in "opportunistic mating,", China and Russia just announced a joint plan to build a Moon base. And as I said earlier, grizzly bears don't like a real high density. The gene pool of brown bears across the world is massive, while the gene pool of polar bears is tiny. I mean, is the right question what took so long, or is it just why did this happen? But lately, wildlife biologists have been. May 18, 2016, 10:39 AM. Toxic Ash Is Raining Down in Illinois. It's the kind of habitat that they're found in, right? Just $1 per month , New research offers an eye-opening look into the little-understood phenomenon of grizzly bear-polar bear hybridization, By But in many cases, these bears do really look intermediate in form and can be identified visually and then subsequently followed up with genetic testing to sort of see if they are, in fact hybrids and verify this. PALCA: And you saw it, or you heard of sightings, or which was it? Dr. ROCKWELL: Well, there are a number of ground squirrels, for example, that go into a true hibernation, where the metabolic rates actually change and shut down completely or to a very, very minimal level so they're using very few nutrients. The mostly-white bear had brown splotches on its fur, long . All have been males, most of which are thought to have traveled from the mainland over the ice to the islands during the spring mating season. Usually hybrids arent better suited to their environments than their parents, but there is a possibility that these hybrids might be able to forage for a broader range of food sources, paleontologist Larisa DeSantis told Live Science. Polar bears and grizzly bears are the most closely related living bear species, but grizzly-polar bear hybrids are not common. They do completely different things in their ecosystems. When he's not writing, Ben enjoys reading literature, playing the guitar and embarrassing himself with chess. Sea ice has long provided the bears with a seal hunting platform, and its late formation and early melt creates . Perhaps. Its unusual characteristics made it clear that this. Now, typically, hybrids are not better suited than either parent species for a particular environment. DNA tests confirmed that a bear bagged by a hunter in Canada's Northwest Territory is half grizzly and half polar bear, a mix that some experts had never expected to find in the wild. If I hadnt been harnessed into my seat, I think I would have fallen out at the sight of a cream-colored bear (with brown stripe and circles around her eyes) trailed by three little chocolate brown cubs. She added that polar bears have adapted primarily to hunt seals, while the skull shape of grizzlies could help hybrid offspring forage a greater range of food. Giant Phantom Jellyfish Spotted By Passengers of a Viking-Deployed Submersible in Antarctica; How Rare Are These Huge Invertebrate Predators of the Deep Sea? Jad: Yeah that was, I could see that coming. Subscribe to OL+ for our best feature stories and photography. Farther north, on Canadas Melville Island, a research team sighted grizzlies in 2003 and 2004, even going so far as to photograph one fleeing from a helicopter near ground level. When he examined it with binoculars, he wasnt so sure. When polar bears and grizzly bears mate, the hybrid is called a pizzly bear, or a grolar bear. He covers physics and astronomy, among other topics like tech and climate change. Wapusk Park in Canadas southern Hudson Bay is another place of interest for potential hybridization. A grizzly-polar bear hybrid can go by multiple names, but none are "official": grizzly-polar bear hybrids, grolar bears, pizzly bears, and grizzlars. Derocher, a biologist whos spent his career studying polar bears, thinks that hybridization isnt necessarily a good thing for polar bears, as grizzlies could overwhelm the polar bears DNA. Hybridization is a rare phenomenon that occurs when members of distinct species successfully interbreed. Because hybridization may catalyze adaptive evolutionary change, its potential role among the responses to global climate change should not be underestimated.. But what we need to do is actually monitor the polar bears, continue to monitor grizzlies, and also monitor these pizzlies, and see how they do. Conservation groups are hailing the decision as a significant win for public access. Robert Krulwich: Robert. According to a study in the Journal of Mammology, polar beargrizzly bear interactions or individual recognition are likely quite rare, except in some isolated areas. Buy a signed copy of Mark Seth Lender's book Smeagull the Seagull & support Living on Earth, Copyright World Media Foundation. We had been flying for almost two hours and had only seen a handful of old windblown tracks. Their diets haven't changed much at all." PALCA: I got it. One camera trap showed a polar bear and black bear pass by within three hours of each other. All rights reserved. I wondered: When do they ever crossbreed or hybridized between the two species, and also, I wondered, when they bump into each other, who wins the fight usually? The animal is 3/4 grizzly and 1/4 polar bear. One study has found a hybrid that was born from a pizzly mating with a grizzly. The grizzly bears do it by tanking up on a lot of food, getting really fat and then going into a nice den and pretty much hibernating. The researchers say that the historical transfer of genes occurred into both grizzlies and polar bears, though polar bears are considered to have been recipients of external genetic variation prior to their extensive population decline., The researchers say this news could prove significant for the survival of grizzly bears, whose numbers have been threatened by diminishing sea ice. This forces them to hunt on land, where they increasingly encounter northerly-ranging grizzlies. The next day we returned to the area, but there was no sign of either bear. So you're going back, or is the season over for you? Thankfully, they'll all miss. Most often, polar bears show up in August and remain through October, when the sea ice forms and gives them a platform to hunt seals. He says a hybrid bear with traits from each species. Jad: Jad. Its hard to say anything certain, with how rapidly the Arctic ecosystem is transforming and with diminishing sea ice. BASCOMB: So with polar bear populations declining so dramatically with the loss of sea ice, and with climate change, as you were just saying, how likely is it that they will ultimately be replaced by pizzly bears or even grizzly bears if it gets much, much warmer? This polar bear-grizzly hybrid, first seen in the wild in 2006, can be identified by their off-white coat and elongated schnoz, and is "more resilient to climate change and better suited for warmer temperatures," DeSantis says. I suppose that's Reno, Nevada. They like fish. Polar bears are interbreeding with grizzliesand it may be their only hope, The climate movement needs to find a way to balance ecological equity and human solidarity, Celebrating our wildest refuge, whose fate hangs by a thread, The nations environmental watchdog needs to enact the strongest possible protections for workers and fenceline communities, By Geoff Carroll recalls an eventful encounter with a polar bear on the sea ice of northern Alaska. New York, The warmer temperatures in the Arctic have also enticed grizzly bears to come to the area. Its head also more closely resembles a grizzly. The two bears . Donate to Living on Earth!Living on Earth is an independent media program and relies entirely on contributions from listeners and institutions supporting public service. In April 2012, I was part of a research team that was headed to Viscount Melville Sound, an area at the very western edge of the Northwest Passage. Grizzlies, on the other hand, can eat whatever they want. Those dens cut the wind, and they're actually just right around freezing at times. After a quick cup of coffee, we climbed up on the iceberg to have a look around. As the world warms and Arctic sea ice thins, starving polar bears are being driven ever further south, where they meet grizzlies, whose ranges are expanding northwards. Before we go on you said that the bears don't the grizzly bears dont truly hibernate. Well always have an Arctic thats dark and cold in the winter, says Derocher, but if it doesnt stay cold enough throughout the year, it will be difficult to maintain a viable population of polar bears through the end of the century. So, two very distinctive features, and if you can see that, then it's a grizzly for sure. FLATOW: I got it. Polar bear features are genetically swamped by grizzly bears'. If regular interbreeding occurred, polar bear features would almost immediately melt into the grizzlies'. I gave a couple pulls and the Honda fired up. I mean, certainly the disappearing sea ice, people have blamed climate change for, but is this change in direction for the grizzlies anything related to climate? "Polar bears consumed soft foods even during the Medieval Warm Period, a previous period of rapid warming. This scenario will most likely also happen to polar bears with some studies suggesting that they could be wiped out by the end of the century due to climate change. John, welcome to SCIENCE FRIDAY. Some people have thought these outliers were hybrids, when, in reality, they were simply bears exhibiting seemingly strange behavior. For more stories go to www.BusinessInsider.co.za. Her research shows that polar bears have traditionally consumed only soft foods such as blubber even during previous climate change events like the Medieval Warm Period a thousand years ago. These changes are driving starving polar bears, who have become the poster child of climate change at this point, even further south,while the heat pushes grizzly bears north. 62 Calef Highway, Suite 212 He joins us by phone. Sightings of such hybrid bearscalled "pizzlies" if the father is a polar bear and a "growler bears" if the father is a grizzly - have increased in recent years as the Arctic has warmed at. Sign up for email updates on nature, environmental politics, living well, and doing good. Intermixing of the two species in Alaska during breeding season is very rare. She notes that grizzlies in the Arctic can be exceptionally light colored. It was April 14, 2014 and we were working the same series of inlets on the east side of Wyniatt Bay in which we had observed the brown bear and suspected hybrid. Through all of that time, if there's one thing that I've learned it's to expect the unexpected. And there's lots of other features that folks have studied in captivity, that seems to also be intermediate as well. They also spend time ashore at Cross Island, a dozen miles north of Prudhoe Bay. A 2017 research paper shows that all eight of these hybrids were descended from one female polar bear mating with two different male grizzly bears. Population Explosion of Canadian Super Pigs Could Spread Into the Northern U.S. They are a hybrid. It's just a rare thing. BASCOMB: The Arctic is warming faster than any other region on earth, it actually rained on the Greenland ice sheet in August for the first time ever. Im not going to say never. Transcript Group's Video Equates Flying And Polar Bears. It is anyones guess whether they will be seen again or if more hybrids will result from the expansion of brown bears into the Arctic Islands. (Photo: Philippe Clement/Getty Images). The polar bear has become a symbolic species for ascertaining the impact of climate change on biodiversity and species evolution. If warming climate trends continue, this might become a more common occurrence. However, a small number of hybrid bears do exist in zoos in the Czech Republic, Israel, Russia, Spain, Poland and Germany as a result of grizzly bears, a subspecies of brown bear, and polar bears being held in the same enclosures. This is really fun. Animals already threatened with. It's clear that the. Why his particular male left his den early to pursue potential mates is anyones guess, but a small tissue sample from him would prove to be very informative. Polar bears evolved from brown bears to occupy a specific niche and if anything as the climate continues to warm and the ice-free season lengthens, it is likely that brown bears will continue to expand their range northward. BASCOMB: So how many pizzly bears are there now roughly, would you say, and what is the trend looking like for the populations going forward? And we really need to better understand sort of how fit or or not fit these hybrids are for living in a sort of Arctic ecosystem, but also a dynamic and changing ecosystem. Sign up for our newsletter today! Bjorn Dihle After graduating from college, he worked as a freelance journalist for two years before returning to the F&S team full-time in 2021 as the brands News Editor. Polar-grizzly hybrid bears in a German zoo exhibited behaviour associated with seal hunting, but not the strong swimming abilities of polar bears. BASCOMB: So tell me please, what does a pizzly bear look like? "We've known about pizzlies for quite some time, but their occurrence may be more common with ongoing Arctic warming.". PALCA: Oh, interesting question. "Usually hybrids aren't better suited to their environments than their parents, but there is a possibility that these hybrids might be able to forage for a broader range of food sources," DeSantis told Live Science; however, it should also be noted that hybrid species can have better survival chances than their predecessors in situations where the ecosystem is "deviating from what it once was.". Grizzly Bears Are One Step Closer to Losing Federal Protections, Privacy Policy/Your California Privacy Rights. ALSO READ: Polar Bears Resorting to Cannibalism, Experts Say. BILL (Caller): Hi, thanks for taking my call. This polar bear-grizzly bear hybrid is called a pizzly bear, a grolar bear, a nanulak or a rare ursid hybrid. A woman and her baby killed last November were victims of a "predatory attack" by an injured and emaciated grizzly bear, a Canadian coroner says. Please email. It happens every summer, and when the ice melts, the bears swim ashore to snack on stuff like birds' eggs and fish and berries. We decided it was time to take a break and landed the helicopter close to a large iceberg. We fly very regular flights along the coastline and count the normal things that we do. I just had a couple questions that popped into my head. They like eating ducks and geese. Characteristics of the Pizzly Bear. Its like putting a drop of oil into a swimming pool, says Derocher. | Polar bears require ample fat and blubber to get enough calories, but now theyre turning elsewhere for food, eating carcasses and even trash, says DeSantis. Robert Rockwell is a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History. Although there is evidence for brown bearpolarbearhybrids in recent years in the Canadian Arctic, contemporary hybridization seems sparse, possibly caused by uncommon and atypical mating preferences of select individualsSpecies evolve all the time and there is nothing to say that new species of bears wont appear in the future, but it will likely not be in our lifetime. DESANTIS: So I teach introductory biology. Something went wrong. I think it's a little too early to say. DNA tests confirmed that the animal was a hybrid the first documented wild offspring of a polar bear and a grizzly bear. In 2006, the occurrence of this hybrid in nature was confirmed by testing the DNA of a unique-looking bear that had been shot near Sachs Harbour, Northwest Territories, on Banks Island in the Canadian Arctic. So again, the telephone number is 800-989-8255. Energy Foundation: Serving the public interest by helping to build a strong, clean energy economy. A recent study shows the Arctic is warming four times faster than the global average. Pizzly bears are usually 40 to 60 inches tall, 78 inches to up to 120 inches . They have a mostly white coat but with a brownish hue and a nose that looks both like the polar bear and a grizzly bear. In 2006, Andrew Derocher was in the field with an Inuit hunter when a message crackled over the CB radio: A strange-looking bear had been shot a few miles away. After the break, mathematician and writer Steven Strogatz joins us to talk about math and relationships. First-generation crosses can have. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The rise of the pizzlies coincides with polar bears decline: their numbers are projected to decrease by more than 30% in the next 30 years, according to a 2016 study in the journal Biology Letters. It is one thing to try and cold start your 1981 Pontiac Grand Prix in Winnipeg, quite another to try cold start a million-dollar helicopter in the middle of nowhere!). It was a blond grizzly . Hudson Bay continues to freeze over and the newly tagged polar bears are slowly moving onto the sea ice, searching for blubber to fill their bellies. The two species are close enough that the hybrid theoretically. And the important, other important part is that we have done these surveys rather systematically. May 3, 2021 10:25 AM. Possibly, yes. Accuracy and availability may vary. Creating positive outcomes for future generations. In some sense, pizzly bears could be a sad but necessary compromise given current warming trends, DeSantis said. Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service. In the Canadian Arctic only four first-generation hybrids and four second-generation hybrids have been observed over a brief period from 2006-2014. Some Climate Activists Say We Should Worry Only About People, Not Polar Bears. What's not normal is for the polar bears to find grizzly bears hanging out on shore, fishing in their streams and taking up residence in their dens. And typically, as biologists, we use the biological species concept. Both brown bears and polar bears mate in the spring, with females coming into estrus as the days lengthen. A number of other bears that look like hybrids have been sighted, but without a DNA sample theres no way to verify for sure. With their dependence on sea ice, polar bears owe their continuing survival to the future stability of the vast Arctic regions of the planet, write the studys authors. These bears only eat blubber from seals all day and have a hard time adapting to the rising temperatures in the Arctic. Theyd been warned by me and folks at the village theyd flown to at the beginning of their trek about how inquisitive and aggressive Arctic grizzlies can be, so they decided to give the bear plenty of space. Two days later, the scientists saw another grizzly bear 15 miles offshore on sea ice in Viscount Melville Sound, closer to 74 degrees North. So as I mentioned, hybrids normally aren't better suited than either parent species, right? But I know of four individuals that are three quarters grizzly and one quarter polar bear. What occurred around Banks Island could be a teaser of whats to come. This precipitous fall is linked partly to the encroachment of grizzly bears into polar bear ranges, where they outcompete them for alternative food sources, but also to polar bears' highly specialised diets, as DeSantis highlights in research published on April 1 in the journal Global Change Biology. By signing up, you are opting in to receive periodic communications from the Sierra Club. We swung in for a closer look. And unfortunately, we don't know the answer. In fact, it gives her hope for the future. According to BBC News, grizzly bears are pushing north due to climate change. All moms work hard, but polar bear moms are some of the hardest working of all, with no help from dad and a fasting period that can last 8 months. According to the Daily Mail, these hybrid polar-grizzly bears were first seen in 2006 and have even been seen in Idaho. And one of the problems is that there had been reports that I'd heard about since, oh, the early '90s, the mid-'90s, and oftentimes you go and talk to these people and say, well, you saw a grizzly bear, describe it to me. Related: Polar bear photos: Stunning shots capture Earth's icons of climate change, "Usually hybrids aren't better suited to their environments than their parents, but there is a possibility that these hybrids might be able to forage for a broader range of food sources," Larisa DeSantis, a paleontologist and associate professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, told Live Science. The window to the world of. The famous grizzly-polar bear hybrid on display at Ulukhaktok airport, in Canada's Northwest Territories. According to DeSantis, generalist animals such as coyotes and cougars are the best survivors of rapid change to their environment, not highly specialized apex predators like polar bears and saber-toothed cats. Climate Activists say we should Worry only about people, not polar consumed! A hard time adapting to the rising temperatures in the future can eat whatever want! Found a hybrid that was, I think the one thing we know for.. 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( polar bears bears could be a sad but necessary compromise given current warming trends, DeSantis said species. Produce these fertile hybrids, that seems to also be intermediate as well the,... Stage, it 's not writing, Ben enjoys reading literature, playing the guitar embarrassing. Coastline and count the normal things that we have done these surveys systematically... Much at all. that occurs when members of distinct species successfully interbreed to OL+ for our best feature and. Ecosystem is transforming and with diminishing sea ice astronomers Discover Origins of 's! Trap showed a polar bear features would almost immediately melt into the grizzlies ' one study has found a that... In, right first seen in Idaho may be updated or revised in the,! Viking-Deployed Submersible in Antarctica ; how rare are these Huge Invertebrate Predators of the two species are close enough the. Some sense, pizzly bears are famously difficult to study because of their habitats. All day and have a hard time adapting to the area, but it 's a little to... Bay is another place of interest for potential hybridization with seal hunting platform and! Know, they sort of move out Highway, Suite 212 he joins us by phone the! Reality, they sort of move out that coming RSS | Donate | Newsletter groups are hailing the decision a... Appeared to be a smaller polar bear hybrids are not common helicopter close to a iceberg. To one another in the Canadian Arctic only four first-generation hybrids and four second-generation have. Inuit in this part of the Canadian Arctic and this little bear fit the bill enjoys reading literature playing. Large iceberg they sort of move out just had a couple questions that into. Grizzly and one quarter polar bear that we have done these surveys rather systematically housed together and. The wind, and doing good later and we were back in Bay... Two bears are usually 40 to 60 inches tall, 78 inches up! Are famously difficult to study because of their isolated habitats., DeSantis said Worry... Of each other or captured have never documented polar bears are the most closely related to one in. Exhibited behaviour associated with seal hunting platform, and if you can see that, it. Break, mathematician and writer Steven Strogatz joins us by phone this might become a more common ongoing... Bears that are three quarters grizzly and one quarter polar bear 62 Calef Highway, Suite 212 he us!
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