Or is it actually more than a subspecies? Kiang is deemed to be a full species these days, and Brown Bear strikes me as being as likely to have genetic drift as Asiatic Wild Ass.
From the studies I've read (wish I had them on hand, or had links to them), Tibetan and Mongolian Brown Bears are extreme outliers in the clade. If the species gets revised, which undoubtedly it will, this will be a distinct species.
U.(a.) pruinosus looks VERY different, doesn't it?
Whereas Himalayan Brown Bear (U. a. isabellinus) look a little like a cross between Syrian and Eurasian Brown Bears, I find it hard to assign Blue Bear as a mere subspecies. For these animals to be hybrids between Brown Bear and Asiatic Black would be nearly as visually credible!
These Bears have aroused plenty of comment. I for one have never seen any photos of similar-looking bears before. The big white crescents on their chests/necks are certainly reminiscent of Himalayan Black Bears and I don't know of any other arctos subspecies that possess similar. The pale/golden head on a darker body is also reminiscent of the Japanese form of brown bear.
