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Researchers tracking wild polar bears in northern Canada observed something exceedingly rare this fall: a mother bear adopting a cub that was not biologically her own.

The five-year-old maternal bear and her nearly year-old cubs were observed and filmed during the annual polar bear migration along the Hudson Bay's western shore near the Manitoba town of Churchill, an locale renowned for its polar bear population.

"It's unusual," remarked a scientist with a polar bear conservation group. "We don't really know why it occurs...but we know it doesn't happen often at all."

It's only the thirteenth documented instance of adoption out of nearly five thousand bears studied for nearly five decades in that region.

The female bear was initially tagged as she came out from her birthing den this springtime. Initially, she had a single offspring, which researchers marked for research.

In the fall, she was spotted once more, but this time with a pair of cubs - the initially tagged cub and another without a tag. Scientists aren't sure what happened to the second cub's biological mother, but they are trying to locate her using genetic samples.

"These animals need every advantage they can get these days with climate change," commented a polar bear scientist. "If females have the chance to pick up an additional youngster and care for it and see it to independence, it's a positive development for the bears."

Polar bears in the wild only have a fifty-fifty survival rate of surviving into maturity, but having a mother caring for them boosts their chances.

The cubs are reported as healthy, researchers said, and they will likely remain with their adoptive mother until they are about 30 months of age.

Next, the bear family is expected to head out to the frozen ocean, where the cubs will learn from their mother how to hunt seals and survive on their own.

"It is heartening to know that the animals are caring for each other," added the researcher.