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Polar bears don’t have the easiest life, and among the polar bears, mothers and cubs have it the hardest. Only around 50% of cubs that are born survive into adulthood because of all the trials and obstacles that they need to overcome during their first years.
If a young cub gets separated from its mother or its mother dies, its chances of survival are almost zero. Their one real hope is that they find another new mother to adopt them, but that is quite rare.
In December of 2025, however, that is what happened in Hudson Bay, Canada. It is just the 13th time this has been confirmed to happen in the history of studying this amazing animal, and one of the only times when it was documented without genetic testing being needed.
The mother, oddly named X33991, was seen emerging from her maternity den in the spring of 2024. At that time, she had just one cub, which was tagged by the scientists working for Polar Bears International. When they checked back in with X33991 in the fall, she had two cubs.
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The director of science at Polar Bears International, Alysa McCall, gave an interview about the event. In it, she explained why this type of thing is so surprising to see:
“it is somewhat surprising that a wild animal would take on an extra cub, knowing how energetically intensive such an undertaking is. This just makes the situation all the more interesting! Any mom caring for any baby expends a lot of energy, but polar bears have an even more energetically costly lifestyle than most.”
She goes on to discuss some of the reasons being a mother to polar cubs requires so much energy, including the freezing temperatures, strong winds, long swims that are dangerous for cubs, and the risk of running into male polar bears, who will kill the cubs.
When asked about what might have led to the adoption of this cub, she explained:
“We don’t know much about what sort of scenario occurred that led to this adoption, but it is likely that it’s somewhat a case of right place at the right time.”
She went on:
“However, we know that the adopted cub first must have been completely separated from its biological mother: maybe it simply got lost or maybe its mom died. This cub was fortunate to come across this particular female relatively quickly, before it starved or was killed.
The adoptive mother, X33991, likely had hormones that primed her to want to protect this scared cub. Additionally, we know this mom is young (5 years old at the time of adoption) and her own single cub could be her first litter, meaning that she might not have fully understood what she was getting into by adding another cub to the mix!”
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Even on their own, polar bears have to endure a lot in order to survive. They need to make sure that they eat plenty of food while it is available, since it becomes scarce during the winter when the seals are more difficult to catch. They have to navigate shifting seasonal ice and avoid other aggressive members of the species.
To have a mother take on a cub that isn’t hers is remarkable, given that she would not be passing on her genes. This just goes to show that polar bears are amazing creatures and definitely worthy of any effort we can make to help protect them for future generations.
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