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Scientists studying polar bears were greeted with a most unexpected surprise during a recent tracking expedition in northeastern Manitoba.<\/p>\n
A polar bear mother and her cub were walking near Churchill in mid-November when scientists saw her with a second cub, which they were able to verify was not her own. It marks just the 13th such case of cub adoption within the western Hudson Bay subpopulation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we got confirmation that this was an adoption, I had a lot of mixed feelings, but mostly good,\u201d Alysa McCall, director of conservation outreach and a staff scientist with Polar Bears International, said in a video provided to media.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Evan Richardson, a polar bear research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, was in the field back in March. His team of researchers caught up with the mother coming out of the denning area in Wapusk National Park, south of Churchill.<\/p>\n
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When they were photographed in November, two of the bears had GPS tracking collars, whereas the new addition did not. (Dave Sandford Photography)<\/p>\n
During that sighting, the mother only had one cub with her, Richardson said on a separate video provided to media.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to the fall and Richardson was taken aback seeing the family of two having become a family of three. Two of the bears had been previously tagged with GPS-tracking collars and the newly adopted cub didn\u2019t have one.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s not that frequent though because in our long-term study we have over 4,600 individual bears that we’ve known over the last 45 years, and literally hundreds and hundreds of litters [of cubs],\u201d he said of the adoption.<\/p>\n
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Evan Richardson, a polar bear research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, suspects a strong maternal instinct led the mother bear to adopt the lone cub. (Submitted by Samantha Bayard)<\/p>\n
Researchers estimate the mother is about five years old, while the cubs are both around 10-11 months.<\/p>\n
Richardson doesn\u2019t know for certain why the mother adopted the lone-roaming cub, but he has a hypothesis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really think it’s just because [polar bears are] so maternally charged and such good mothers, and they just can’t leave a cub crying on the tundra. So they pick them up and take them along with them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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After being seen in March with only one cub, the female polar bear was spotted in November with two, after adopting a lone-roaming bear. (Dave Sandford Photography)<\/p>\n
Polar bear cubs typically stay with their mothers for between two and two-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a lot of time to learn how to be a polar bear, but they do soak up a lot of lessons during that time. The survival rate for cubs to make it to adulthood is around 50 per cent \u2026 but if we learn a cub has no mom, it has almost no chance,\u201d McCall said.<\/p>\n
The adopted cub now has a good chance to reach adulthood, she said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unknown what happened to the adopted cub\u2019s biological mother, but Richardson hopes the genetic data sample his team was able to get from the cub will be able to provide some insight.<\/p>\n