15°

[xoxoxoBruce]

At last, science has discovered why Polar Bears are so dangerous... they're Irish.

The Arctic's dwindling population of polar bears all descend from a single mamma brown bear which lived 20,000 to 50,000 years ago in present-day Ireland, new research suggests.

DNA samples from the great white carnivores - taken from across their entire range in Russia, Canada, Greenland, Norway and Alaska - revealed that every individual's lineage could be traced back to this Irish forebear.

The analysis of genetic material inherited only through females also showed brown and polar bears mated periodically over the last 100,000 years.