Page 148 - World of Animals - Book of Sharks & Ocean Predators

Sharks & Ocean Predators
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Learning from

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How a mother prepares her cubs for the cold
reality of their extreme environment
When a female polar bear becomes pregnant
she builds an underground burrow, where she
will wait for two or three months to give birth
to one or two tiny cubs. Weighing only 500
grams (one pound), cubs will suckle from the
mother for the following four months until they
reach weight of 10 kilograms (22 pounds). The
milk the mother provides is 27 per-cent fat that
helps the cubs bulk up for the day they leave
the den. When the cubs have gained enough
insulating weight the mother leads her cubs up
to the surface, where she immediately begins to
search for a meal. She will not have eaten since
entering the den six to eight months previously,
and she needs to teach her cubs how to survive

in their first moments above the ground. The
mother keeps her cubs by her side while they
practice their hunting and survival skills for

up to three years until she is satisfied they are
ready to fend for themselves, and sometimes
that moment comes sooner than expected.
Cubs can be left orphaned, and if this happens
they need to be prepared to face the Arctic
tundra alone. Cubs may flee from their mother

is she is fatally attacked and go in search of
food for themselves. If their mother has taught
them well, the cubs are able to survive to go on
to reproduce in the future. The area the mother
first teaches her cubs how to hunt becomes

their home for life, and future generations will
raise their own cubs in the same place.

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