Abstract 188 – Polar Bear Maternal Care and Cub Development

Danielle K. James, Jennifer R. Tobey, Lisa K. Lauderdale, Lance J. Miller, Megan A.
Owen

Given the conservation challenges facing free-ranging polar bear populations, conservation
breeding programs ex situ may become more relevant to the management of the species. Polar
bear neonates are highly altricial, and in den maternal care is required for cub survival and as
follows, population health. However, little is known about maternal care behavior and cub
development in the den as currently the technology to observe polar bears inside dens in the
wild does not exist, resulting in little baseline information about births and maternal care of
cubs prior to emergence. Thus, study of maternal denning polar bears in managed care can
provide valuable insights. We reviewed video recordings of polar bears in maternal dens from
three participating zoos to monitor maternal behavior and cub development. The study
subjects included three polar bear mothers with twin cubs, however each mother lost one cub.
Two cubs died within a few hours after birth and one cub was hand-reared nine days
postpartum. Only the remaining cubs were observed for this study. During a total of 366
observations, we collected behavioral data on both mother and cub during 30-minute
observation sessions spaced every four hours for the first 30 days post-partum. We recorded
mother-cub contact and individual behaviors for both the mother and cub including resting,
nursing, grooming, and other active behaviors. During the first ten days postpartum, cubs spent
60% of the time on mother, usually in a cradled position, and this behavior decreased to 44%
thereafter. Mothers and cubs spent most of the time resting, with mothers occasionally licking
and attending to their cubs, and these behaviors did not change over the postpartum period.
Cubs spent approximately 11% of the time nursing. More replicates from ex situ populations
will refine our understanding of how the denning environment, maternal care behavior and cub
development are correlated with cub survival, supporting population sustainability.