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Researchers monitoring free-roaming polar bears in northern Canada observed something exceedingly rare this fall: a mother bear adopting a cub that was not genetically her own.

The half-decade-old mother and her nearly year-old cubs were spotted and filmed during the yearly polar bear journey along the Western Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, an area renowned for its concentration of Arctic bears.

"It's unusual," stated a scientist with a polar bear conservation group. "The reasons are unclear why it occurs...but we know it is a rare event at all."

It's 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 emerged from her maternity den this spring. Initially, she had one cub, which scientists marked for study.

In the autumn, she was spotted once more, but this time with a pair of cubs - the original cub and another that was untagged. Researchers are uncertain what happened to the second cub's biological mother, but they are trying to locate her using DNA analysis.

"These animals need every advantage they can get in the current era with a warming climate," noted a polar bear scientist. "If females have the opportunity to take in an additional youngster and care for it and successfully wean it, it's a positive development for the bears."

Polar bears in the wild only have a 50% chance of surviving into maturity, but having a maternal figure caring for them boosts their chances.

The young bears are reported as healthy, researchers said, and they will probably remain with their mother until they are about 30 months of age.

Following this, the family is anticipated to head out to sea ice, where the youngsters will be taught from their mother how to hunt seals and survive on their own.

"It's just nice to know that the animals are caring for each other," concluded the scientist.