🔗 Share this article

Scientists tracking wild polar bears in northern Canada observed something remarkably uncommon this fall: a female bear adopting a cub that was not biologically her own.

The half-decade-old maternal bear and her 10- to 11-month-old cubs were observed and captured on camera during the yearly polar bear migration along the Western Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, an locale renowned for its concentration of Arctic bears.

"This is uncommon," stated a researcher with an international bear organization. "We don't really know 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 nearly five decades in the area.

The mother bear was first captured as she came out from her maternity den this springtime. Initially, she had one cub, which scientists marked for study.

In the fall, she was seen again, but this time with two cubs - the original cub and a second that was untagged. Scientists aren't sure what became of the second cub's birth mother, but they are attempting to locate her using DNA analysis.

"These animals need every advantage they can get in the current era with climate change," noted a wildlife biologist. "When mother bears have the opportunity to take in an additional youngster and care for it and successfully wean it, it's a good thing for the bears."

Polar bears in the natural world only have a fifty-fifty survival rate of living into adulthood, but having a mother caring for them boosts their odds.

The young bears appear to be healthy, researchers said, and they will likely stay with their mother until they are about two-and-a-half years old.

Following this, the bear family is expected to head out to sea ice, where the cubs 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," added the scientist.