Polar Ursine Maternal Figure Takes In Cub in Rarely Recorded Instance

View: Video depicts mother polar bear with a pair of offspring – one adopted

Researchers monitoring free-roaming polar bears in northern Canada observed something exceedingly rare this fall: a female bear adopting a cub that was not genetically her own.

The half-decade-old mother and her nearly year-old cubs were spotted and filmed during the yearly 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," stated a scientist with a polar bear conservation group. "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 adoption out of 4,600 bears researched for almost fifty years in the area.

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

In the autumn, she was spotted once more, but this time with two cubs - the original cub and another that was untagged. Scientists aren't sure what happened to the new cub's biological mother, but they are trying to identify her using DNA analysis.

"The bears need every advantage they can get these days with climate change," noted a wildlife biologist. "When mother bears have the opportunity to pick up another cub and raise it and successfully wean it, it's a positive development 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 are reported as in good condition, researchers said, and they will probably stay with their adoptive mother until they are about two-and-a-half years old.

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