Arctic Bear Mother Adopts Cub in Infrequently Documented Case
Researchers monitoring wild polar bears in northern Canada witnessed something exceedingly rare this autumn: a mother bear taking in a cub that was not genetically her own.
The five-year-old mother and her nearly year-old cubs were spotted and filmed during the annual polar bear migration along the Western Hudson Bay near the Manitoba town of Churchill, an locale renowned for its polar bear population.
"This is uncommon," remarked a scientist with a polar bear conservation group. "The reasons are unclear why it happens...but we know it is a rare event at all."
This represents only the thirteenth documented instance of fostering out of nearly five thousand bears researched for almost fifty years in that region.
The female bear was initially tagged as she emerged from her birthing den this spring. Initially, she had a single offspring, which scientists marked for research.
In the autumn, she was seen again, but this time with two cubs - the original cub and another without a tag. Scientists are uncertain what became of the second cub's birth mother, but they are trying to locate her using genetic samples.
"The bears need every advantage they can get these days with climate change," noted a wildlife biologist. "If females have the chance to take in another cub and raise it and successfully wean it, it's a good thing for the population."
Polar bears in the wild only have a fifty-fifty survival rate of surviving into maturity, but having a maternal figure providing care boosts their odds.
The young bears appear to be healthy, researchers said, and they will probably stay with their mother until they are about 30 months of age.
Next, the bear family is anticipated to venture out to sea ice, where the cubs will learn from their mother how to catch prey and live on their own.
"It's just nice to know that the animals are looking out for each other," concluded the researcher.