Six zoo staff play foster parents to polar bear cubs whose mother rejected them

Two polar bear cubs - a male and a female - were born at the beginning of December to a seven year old mother bear Seryozhka from Novaya Zemlya, and an 18 year old male bear Sedov from Krasnoyarsk. 

Both bears currently live in Gelendzhik safari park in the south of Russia.

‘Sadly Seryozhka the mother declined the den we made for her, and showed no signs of maternal instinct. We had to take the cubs away, and six of us including myself acted as mothers to the newborns, keeping a non-stop eye to make sure they were warm and had enough milk’, said Yelena Milovidova, deputy director of the Gelendzhik safari park.

There were less than 20 polar bear cubs across the world successfully raised in situations when mothers refused to look after them. 

In nature male bears have no role in bringing up cubs, with mother responsible for nurturing blind, tiny and helpless cubs during the critical first weeks after birth. 

‘This is a unique experience for us, and incredibly precious experience for the rest of the world because in all there were less than twenty cubs raised in captivity without mother’s help during last 50 years. This statistics is incomparable to any other wild animal like elephants or orang-utan. To nurture a polar bear cub is a task next to impossible’, Yelena Milovidova said. 

The team of the safari park trained the mother bear to give blood, and used blood serum as a way to provide the cubs with the first vital immunity boost which normally comes with mothers milk. 

Recently the cubs, still unnamed, opened their eyes. 

The team of foster mothers decreased to four women as the immediate danger to the cubs’ life is over.