🔗 Share this article

Scientists monitoring free-roaming polar bears in northern Canada witnessed something remarkably uncommon this autumn: a female bear adopting a cub that was not genetically her own.

The half-decade-old maternal bear and her nearly year-old cubs were spotted and captured on camera during the yearly polar bear migration along the Western Hudson Bay near the Manitoba town of Churchill, an locale known for its concentration of Arctic bears.

"This is uncommon," remarked 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."

It's only the 13th known case of fostering out of 4,600 bears studied for nearly five decades 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 researchers marked for research.

In the autumn, she was seen again, but this time with a pair of cubs - the original cub and another without a tag. Researchers are uncertain what became of the new cub's biological mother, but they are attempting to identify her using DNA analysis.

"These animals need all the help they can get in the current era with a warming climate," commented a wildlife biologist. "When mother bears have the opportunity to take in another cub and raise it and see it to independence, 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 mother caring for them boosts their odds.

The young bears appear to be healthy, according to experts, and they will likely stay with their mother until they are about 30 months of age.

Next, the bear family is expected 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's just nice to know that the bears are looking out for each other," added the researcher.