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Researchers monitoring free-roaming polar bears in northern Canada witnessed something exceedingly rare this autumn: a female bear adopting a cub that was not biologically her own.

The half-decade-old mother and her nearly year-old cubs were spotted and captured on camera during the yearly polar bear journey along the Western Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, an area known for its polar bear population.

"This is uncommon," stated a researcher with a polar bear conservation group. "We don't really know why it happens...but we know it is a rare event at all."

This represents only the thirteenth documented instance of fostering out of nearly five thousand bears studied for almost fifty years in the area.

The female bear was first captured as she came out from her maternity den this spring. Initially, she had a single offspring, which researchers tagged for research.

In the autumn, she was spotted once more, but this time with a pair of cubs - the original cub and another that was untagged. Scientists aren't sure what became of the second cub's birth mother, but they are trying to locate her using genetic samples.

"These animals need every advantage they can get these days with climate change," noted a polar bear scientist. "If females have the opportunity to take in another cub and care for it and successfully wean it, it's a good thing for the bears."

Polar bears in the wild only have a 50% chance of surviving into maturity, but having a maternal figure providing care improves their chances.

The cubs appear to be healthy, according to experts, and they will probably stay with their adoptive mother until they are about two-and-a-half years old.

Next, the family is expected to head out to sea ice, where the youngsters will learn from their mother how to catch prey and live on their own.

"It's just nice to know that the bears are looking out for each other," concluded the researcher.