🔗 Share this article

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

The half-decade-old mother and her nearly year-old cubs were observed and captured on camera during the annual polar bear migration along the Western Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, an locale known for its polar bear population.

"This is uncommon," remarked a researcher with an international bear organization. "The reasons are unclear why it occurs...but we know it is a rare event at all."

This represents only the thirteenth documented instance of adoption out of nearly five thousand bears researched for almost fifty years in that region.

The mother bear was initially tagged as she emerged from her maternity den this springtime. At the time, she had a single offspring, which scientists tagged for research.

In the fall, she was spotted once more, but this time with two cubs - the initially tagged cub and another without a tag. Researchers are uncertain what became of 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," commented a polar bear scientist. "If females have the chance to pick up another cub and raise it and successfully wean it, it's a positive development for the bears."

Polar bears in the wild only have a fifty-fifty survival rate of surviving into adulthood, but having a maternal figure caring for them boosts their odds.

The cubs 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 family is expected to head out to sea ice, where the youngsters will learn from their mother how to hunt seals and live on their own.

"It's just nice to know that the animals are caring for each other," concluded the scientist.