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Researchers tracking wild polar bears in northern Canada observed 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 observed and captured on camera during the annual polar bear journey along the Hudson Bay's western shore near the Manitoba town of Churchill, an locale renowned for its concentration of Arctic bears.

"This is uncommon," stated a researcher 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 fostering out of 4,600 bears studied for almost fifty years in the area.

The female bear was first captured as she came out from her maternity den this springtime. At the time, she had a single offspring, which researchers marked for study.

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

"The bears need all the help they can get in the current era with a warming climate," noted a wildlife biologist. "When mother bears have the opportunity to take in an additional youngster and raise it and successfully wean it, it's a good thing for the bears."

Polar bears in the wild only have a 50% chance of living into adulthood, but having a maternal figure providing care boosts their odds.

The young bears appear to be in good condition, researchers said, and they will probably stay with their mother until they are about two-and-a-half years old.

Next, the bear family is expected to venture out to the frozen ocean, where the youngsters will learn from their mother how to catch prey and live on their own.

"It is heartening to know that the bears are looking out for each other," added the scientist.