Researchers in northern Canada have observed a rare case of polar bear adoption, capturing video footage of a wild female bear caring for a cub that was not her own.<\/p>\n
“Cub adoption is relatively rare in polar bears. We’ve documented 13 cases in our study population over the last 45 years,” said Evan Richardson, a scientist with Canada’s ministry for environment and climate change.<\/p>\n
The footage of a bear caring for an adopted cub was captured during the annual polar bear migration along the Western Hudson Bay<\/a> in Churchill, Manitoba, widely known as the polar capital of the world.<\/p>\n Canadian researchers encountered the mother in the spring as she left her maternity den. She had only one cub, which was tagged \u2014 a common practice to aid study of the population.<\/p>\n They encountered the same mother again weeks ago but saw a second cub with no ear tag, Richardson told AFP.<\/p>\n “When we went back and looked at the data, we realized that she had adopted a second cub,” he said.<\/p>\n Video footage collected by the researchers shows the cubs surveying a snow-covered landscape, with the mother pacing behind, and one sequence where one cub hurries to join the others.<\/p>\n Both cubs are 10 to 11 months old, and will likely stay with their mother until about 2.5 years of age.<\/p>\n “When we got confirmation that this was an adoption, I had a lot of mixed feelings, but mostly good,” Alysa McCall, a staff scientist with Polar Bears International, said in a video provided to the CBC<\/a>. “It’s just another reason why this species is so incredible, why they’re so fascinating and interesting, and it gives you a lot of hope when you realize that polar bears may be looking out for each other out there.”<\/p>\n Researchers currently have no information as to what happened to the adopted cub’s biological mother.<\/p>\n But having a maternal figure increases the chances of the cub’s survival into adulthood, Richardson said.<\/p>\n “It’s really a feel-good story to know that this female bear is looking after this cub and that it has a chance at survival,” Richardson said.<\/p>\n “These female polar bears are such good moms, they’re maternally primed to take care of offspring, and when there’s a lone cub out on the tundra, bawling and crying, they just take them under their wing,” he added.<\/p>\n There are currently about 26,000 polar bears worldwide, according to the nonprofit Polar Bears International<\/a>. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists polar bears as a vulnerable species, saying sea ice loss<\/a> from climate change is the biggest threat to their survival.\u00a0<\/p>\n