Vera's Cub: Why Some Mothers Eat Their Young

I want this baby polar bear! Well, on second thought, I want this baby polar bear for just a few weeks--before it gets teeth. In a year, that cub will look at me and say, "Hmmm, I bet you'd make a good meal!"

Carnivorous predator or not, I think I speak for the masses when I say "awwwwwwww . . . " Not convinced? Just watch this video and make sure you turn the volume up, to hear the little tyke snoring. Aside from the ear-wrenching temper tantrum, this is a truly delightful little creature. Smitten, I fear I may break into Marc Anthony's song, "I Want To Spend My Lifetime Loving You."

In case you don't know the story of this little cub, zookeepers at the Nuremberg City Zoo have been busy suckling it--wait, that sounds funny. Rather, zookeepers are feeding the cub by bottle after deciding to remove it from its mother, Vera. Like many postnatal females, Vera was showing intense signs of great distress and confusion.

Earlier in the week, the Nuremberg City Zoo's other female polar bear, Vilma, had eaten her two offspring. The zoo feared Vera would do the same. According to a profile report from National Geographic, it is not uncommon for polar bears, among the most violent of predators, to eat or maul their young.

LiveScience.com writer Andrea Thompson, says "zoologists have observed filial cannibalism, the act of eating one's offspring, in many different types of animals." Lions hippos, bears, wolves, hyenas, herring gulls and more than 15 types of primates, other than man, have been known to engage in infanticide.

Yet, the question remains, "Why would any mother want to eat its child?" Parents of teenagers might have an idea, but scientists haven't settled on a single explanation for infanticide. It is a curious topic, as it seems difficult for such an opposing behavior to evolve--let alone coexist. Could there be some evolutionary benefit to the practice?

A report published by Oxford University Zoologist Dr. Michael Bonsall and Hope Klug from the University of Florida says females may commit infanticide to gain increased access to physical resources (food or space), bias the sex ratio of the litter, or eradicate further problems if the baby is sick or refuses to feed. By killing ill pups, the mother may then allocate her precious resources to those pups more likely to survive.

Animal behaviorist Dr. Anne Hanson says "mothers may also kill entire litters when they are stressed." According to Hanson's study History of the Norway Rat (Rattus norvegicus): Rat Behavior and Biology, "the mother may perceive the environment as too hostile for the pup's survival, or she perceives herself as unable to rear the litter successfully, so she recuperates some of her energetic investment by consuming the young. Malnourished mothers, and mothers who have an abnormal birth experience, may also become infanticidal."

I would assume that these two mother polar bears had abnormal birth experiences--they did give birth in a zoo, not their native glacier. Or perhaps, the little polar bears were so cute that their mothers just wanted to "eat them up." Whatever the reason, one of the pups is safe and sound in zoological intensive care. As you can see from the video above, the cub is healthy, happy and very, very cute. Despite the occasional ear-wrenching tantrum, the cub is reported to spend most of it's time sleeping--thank God for our ears!

For more info and pictures on Vera's cub, click here.

Comments

[whatsthatsound]

When I was a kid, we kept hamsters, which we just thought of as this almost absurdly cute little friends of ours. Until one day one of our pals starting eating her litter of babes, and we tried to save (as clueless eight to eleven year olds will) pink newborns without limbs, one without most of its brain. They all died.
I agree with some of the other posters. It's the environment. It's cages, confinement. Not only does it stress the parent, it "kicks in" with them that this is no place for their offspring to grow up.
Sad.

[VivaZapata]

I watched a polar bear at the central park zoo, trying to exercise in a small pool, swimming back and forth like a human on a treadmill and i couldn't decide if it was normal and healthy behavior or neurotic. i'm still not sure, but i found it hard to imagine that his state was a happy one.

[VivaZapata]

the explanations sound a lot like extensions of capitalism.

You who kill these children now
Forgive me if I inquire
Just according to whose plan?

A dream is not a vision
And you never have been tempted
By a demon or a god.

from "The Story of Isaac" by leonard cohen

[watchingthings]

A prison, a cage, a zoo all the same. What do they have to offer a wild animal that remotely resembles their natural habitat? Maybe the animals should find some way of thanking you for imprisoning them. They are innocent....if you really care for them....put them back in their own invironment. Put big pictures of them in their cages if you must have something in a cage.

[invisible]

I love animals. But as I'm reminded with this case and the many cases that occur involving dogs... THEY'RE FREAKING ANIMALS. We get caught up in humanizing them far too often. And while I find it very sweet of us, it's also very stupid.

[kellygrrrl]

If I was to be bred with the town stud, give birth in a cage and then be put on display, there's a good chance I'd be a little crazy, too.

How many times do we hear of humans killing their children? Plenty.
How many times do we hear of humans molesting their own children? Far too many.

Animals are just as prone to mental illness as humans.
Captivity will drive anyone crazy and make them do the unexplained acts.
Case in Point: Britney Spears

[csavage]

Stop the anthropomorphisms, please!
Bears are bears and more intuned with the natural stressors that cause them to select the best mates and food and to select which offspring are best suited to pass their genes on in the population-that's it!

Humans act more like their primate brethren than more people care to consider, but I see primate behavior at its worst when I see some mother kill her children because she's now mated to another male and it's not the child's father. And to think we are wasting the biggest cerebral cortexes in the planet!

[noblind]

could it be cause they taste good? there is room for all gods creatures...right next to the mash potatos

[enilorac]

The film of that cute little snoring Polar bear is almost surreal, as when was the last time you got to watch a baby polar bear sleep and snore and then cry for food? High drama in the polar bear wing. Sad thing is, polar bears are in big trouble, what with the icecaps melting and no place for them to rest and procreate and give birth and all the other fun stuff their species gets up to. NO POLES/NO POLAR BEARS. This is the big story, their melting habitat, not their animal behavioral behaviors, which have kept them going for millions of years. Interesting article Olivia Z., and such a far cryyy from lightbulbs and shopaholicism etc. ( pardon the reference to that little bear cryyying )

[nellie]

Could this be stress from climate change? They may sense survival is not going to be possible for their young.

[LGrace]

I'd think the mother ate her babies to save them from the lifetime hell that is confinement in a zoo. Every single one of the polar bears I've seen in a zoo has gone literally stir crazy, developing the same kind of dissociative disorders and compulsive repetitive behaviors we've seen in prisoners at Guantanamo.

Parents in war-torn countries have killed their children rather than have them subjected to god-knows-what in the hands of the enemy.

A wrenching choice to make, but considering the alternative for these cubs, being eaten suddenly doesn't sound so bad.

[hubcap halo]

didn't the bible say something about not eating babies? Or maybe it was "eat your babies." Sometimes. Abraham? Anyway, besides eye gouging advice, the bible is full of useful tidbits like the ones I just imparted unto you all.

[independentrepublicrat]

I usually find them a tad scary looking as babies. I much prefer the cuteness of the adults.

[DickTater]

I was stunned and surprised that the female author of this article didn't try to blame men or males.

Bravo!

[SouthpawSass]

As in all species, there are good moms and there are not so good moms. I have less of an issue with a mother polar bear killing her young than I have with say a human mother drowning or beating to death hers.

But it is such a cute lil bugger...