Polar Bears International has shared this amazing story of adoption among polar bears. One female bear, X33991, is currently tending to two cubs. This is a very big deal, given that it marks the 13th confirmed case of this behavior. The conservation team has studied over 4,600 polar bears through the years. Evan Richardson, a research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, illustrates the extraordinary nurturing instincts of female polar bears. This adoption exemplifies all of those amazing qualities.
This mother bear is typical of the Western Hudson Bay polar bear subpopulation. This group is the most well-studied population in the world. Marine scientists have spent close to half a century studying their diet and migration patterns. The two adopted cubs are both about 10 or 11 months old. Realistically, they’ll be stuck with X33991 for at least another year and a half. First assessments indicate that the cubs are thriving and in good health. They flourish even when faced with the harsh realities polar bears face when living in the wild.
“Female polar bears are really good moms and so they’re just primed for looking after and caring for their offspring,” said Richardson. Yet even in its rarity, this sentiment expresses the powerful instinctual undercurrent that can prompt groundbreaking adoptions.
Cold feet About the only thing polar bear adoptions don’t have going for them is rarity. What’s causing all this remains a mystery, and Alysa McCall at Polar Bears International explained that puzzling process. Real-life polar bears are struggling with an increasingly difficult situation in the unforgiving Arctic. In fact, less than half of all cubs born survive to adulthood. Survival right now involves a lot of hunting on the ice as they wait for their spring migration. It means battling months of limited food availability in the summer.
The story of bear X33991 is especially fascinating. Only three of those 13 documented polar bear adoptions over the past 45 years have ever produced living cubs. This underscores the threadbare life these animals must lead in the wild.
GPS data indicates that the mother and her two adopted cubs are already on the sea ice, demonstrating their adaptability in this challenging environment. Sadly, scientists will probably never find out what happened to the original mother of the adopted cubs. “We might never know what happened to the mother,” McCall stated, reflecting on the uncertainties of wildlife observations.