Arctic Bear Maternal Figure Adopts Cub in Rarely Recorded Instance
Researchers tracking free-roaming polar bears in northern Canada witnessed something remarkably uncommon this autumn: a mother bear adopting a cub that was not genetically her own.
The half-decade-old mother and her 10- to 11-month-old cubs were observed and captured on camera during the annual polar bear migration along the Hudson Bay's western shore near the Manitoba town of Churchill, an area renowned for its concentration of Arctic bears.
"It's unusual," remarked a researcher with a polar bear conservation group. "We don't really know why it occurs...but we know it doesn't happen often at all."
It's only the 13th known case of fostering out of nearly five thousand bears studied for nearly five decades in the area.
The female bear was initially tagged as she came out from her birthing den this spring. Initially, she had a single offspring, which researchers tagged for research.
In the fall, she was seen again, but this time with a pair of cubs - the initially tagged cub and another that was untagged. Researchers are uncertain what happened to the second cub's biological mother, but they are trying to locate her using DNA analysis.
"These animals need all the help they can get in the current era with climate change," noted a wildlife biologist. "If females have the opportunity to take in another cub and care for it and successfully wean it, it's a positive development for the bears."
Polar bears in the natural world only have a fifty-fifty survival rate of surviving into adulthood, but having a maternal figure caring for them improves their odds.
The young bears are reported as in good condition, researchers said, and they will likely stay with their adoptive mother until they are about two-and-a-half years old.
Following this, the bear family is anticipated to venture out to the frozen ocean, where the youngsters will learn from their mother bear how to hunt seals and survive on their own.
"It is heartening to know that the animals are looking out for each other," concluded the scientist.
