Rare example of polar bear cub being adopted near Churchill verified by scientists
listen to this article
estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article has been generated by AI-based technology. There may be mispronunciations. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve results.
Scientists studying polar bears encountered a most unexpected surprise during a recent tracking expedition in northeastern Manitoba.
A polar bear mother and her cub were walking near Churchill in mid-November when scientists spotted her with a second cub, which they were able to verify was not her own cub. This is just the 13th case of a cub being adopted within the western Hudson Bay sub-population.
“When we got confirmation that this was an adoption case, I had a lot of mixed emotions, but mostly good ones,” Alyssa McCall, director of conservation outreach and a staff scientist at Polar Bears International, said in a video provided to the media.
“It’s just another reason why this species is so incredible, why they’re so fascinating and interesting, and it gives you so much hope when you realize that polar bears may be out there looking for each other.”
Dr. Evan Richardson, a polar bear research scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, was in the area in March. His team of researchers spotted the den coming out of the denning area in Wapusk National Park, south of Churchill.
During that sighting, only one cub was with the mother, Richardson said in a separate video provided to the media.
The decline was rapid and Richardson was astonished to see a family of two become a family of three. The two bears had previously been tagged with GPS-tracking collars and the newly adopted cub did not have one.
Regarding adoption, he said, “Although it doesn’t happen as frequently because in our long-term study we have over 4,600 individual bears that we know of over the last 45 years, and literally hundreds and hundreds of cubs.”
Researchers estimate the mother to be around five years old, while the two cubs are around 10-11 months old.
Richardson doesn’t know for sure why the mother adopted the cub wandering alone, but she has a hypothesis.
“We really think it’s just because (polar bears) are so maternal and such good mothers, and they can’t leave a cub crying on the tundra. So they pick them up and take them with them,” he said.
Polar bear cubs generally stay with their mothers for two to two and a half years.
McCall said, “It doesn’t take a lot of time to learn to be a polar bear, but during that time they learn a lot of lessons. The survival rate for cubs to adulthood is about 50 percent… But if we find out a cub doesn’t have a mother, it has almost no chance.”
He said the adopted cub now has a good chance of becoming an adult.
It is unknown what happened to the adopted cub’s biological mother, but Richardson is hopeful that the genetic data his team was able to obtain from the cub sample will be able to provide some insight.
The national weather agency partners with both Polar Bears International and the University of Alberta’s Polar Bear Science Program to collect data on the bears via GPS collars. Tagged bears may also make moves tracked online,
McCall said female polar bears in the western Hudson Bay region have been collared for decades, although this happens to only about 10 of them annually.
Adopting a polar bear cub is less common, and seeing one in person is even rarer.
“With climate change these days, bears need all the help they can get,” Richardson said. “Females have the opportunity to carry another cub, care for it, and successfully wean it. That’s a good thing for the bears at Churchill.”
