Researchers witness rare polar bear adoption and capture video of female caring for cub that wasn’t hers

Researchers in northern Canada have observed a rare case of polar bear adoption, capturing video footage of a wild bear caring for a cub that was not hers.

“Cub adoption is relatively rare among polar bears. We have documented 13 cases in our study population over the past 45 years,” said Evan Richardson, a scientist with Canada’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.

Footage of a bear caring for an adopted cub was captured during the annual polar bear migration along the Western Hudson Bay in Churchill, Manitoba, widely known as the polar capital of the world.

Canadian researchers met the mother in the spring as she was leaving the maternity ward. She had only one pup, which was tagged – a common practice to aid population study.

They met the same mother again a few weeks ago, but saw a second cub without an ear tag, Richardson told AFP.

“When we went back and looked at the data, we realized she had adopted a second cub,” he said.

Video footage collected by the researchers shows the cubs observing a snowy landscape, with the mother pacing behind, and a sequence where one of the cubs rushes to join the others.

Both cubs are between 10 and 11 months old and will likely stay with their mother until they are around 2.5 years old.

“When we got confirmation that it was an adoption, I had a lot of mixed feelings, but mostly good ones,” Alysa McCall, a scientist at Polar Bears International, said in a video provided to the CBC. “It’s just another reason why this species is so incredible, why it’s so fascinating and interesting, and it gives you a lot of hope when you realize that polar bears are maybe looking out for each other.”

Researchers currently have no information on what happened to the adopted child’s biological mother.

But having a mother figure increases the cub’s chances of survival to adulthood, Richardson said.

“It’s a really good story to know that this bear is taking care of this cub and that she has a chance of surviving,” Richardson said.

“These female polar bears are very good mothers, they are maternally prepared to take care of their offspring, and when there is a lonely cub in the tundra, bawling and crying, they just take it under their wing,” he added.

There are currently about 26,000 polar bears in the world, according to the nonprofit Polar Bears International. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers polar bears a vulnerable species. loss of sea ice Climate change poses the greatest threat to their survival.

This is not the first time wild animals have been observed with babies that are not their own. Earlier this year, scientists said video shows capuchin monkeys transporting at least 11 howling babies to Panama.

At first, researchers thought it was “a heartwarming story of a strange capuchin adopting these infants,” said Zoë Goldsborough, a behavioral ecologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany.

But Goldsborough said they eventually realized that the kidnappings were a social tradition or “fad” among the island’s young male capuchins, and that in most or all cases the screaming babies died.