Arctic Bear Maternal Figure Takes In Youngster in Rarely Recorded Case
Researchers tracking wild polar bears in Canada's northern regions witnessed something exceedingly rare this autumn: a female bear taking in a cub that was not genetically her own.
The five-year-old maternal bear and her 10- to 11-month-old cubs were spotted and filmed during the yearly polar bear journey along the Hudson Bay's western shore near the Manitoba town of Churchill, an locale renowned for its concentration of Arctic bears.
"This is uncommon," remarked a researcher with an international bear organization. "We don't really know why it occurs...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 mother bear was initially tagged as she came out from her birthing den this springtime. At the time, 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 a second that was untagged. Researchers aren't sure what happened to the new cub's biological mother, but they are trying to identify her using genetic samples.
"These animals need all the help they can get these days with climate change," noted a wildlife biologist. "If females have the opportunity to take in an additional youngster and raise it and successfully wean it, it's a positive development for the population."
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 healthy, researchers said, and they will probably stay with their mother until they are about two-and-a-half years old.
Following this, the bear family is expected to venture out to the frozen ocean, where the cubs will be taught from their mother how to hunt seals and live on their own.
"It is heartening to know that the bears are caring for each other," concluded the scientist.
