Polar bear cub hitches a ride

news ^ | 2 October 2009 | Jody Bourton

[JoeProBono]

Which may explain why a polar bear cub has recently been seen riding on the back of its mother as the bears swim across parts of the Arctic Ocean.

The cub then briefly rode her back as she clambered out of the icy water, a unique event photographed by a tourist.

Experts have rarely seen the behaviour, and they say the latest find suggests it may be a more common practice than previously thought.

[JoeProBono]

[devane617]

Nice ride...

[ottbmare]

So adorable and cuddly!—right up until the time they see you and realize how delicious you are.

[mylife]

Great shot

[Pontiac]

Cubs of other bear species such as the sloth bear also ride on their parents.

I hate political correctness in science articles, particularly when anthropomorphizing animals.

Correct me if I am wrong but I know of no bear species that is raised by both parents.

The cubs are raised completely by the mother and the father will happily kill and eat the young if given the chance.

[irishtenor]

Seeing that the ice is melting due to Global Warming, the terrified polar bear cub climbs onto its mother in shear panic. The mother, who realizes that man has caused a terrible pandemic of heat because they foolishly insist on driving pollution spewing automobiles, scrambles away in an attempt to find a patch of ice that is not in danger of man-caused melting.

[Daffynition]

This is what happens when the snow machine breaks down.

[Vendome]

before I scroll down, I will bet we some pics of bears with Coke’s.

Let’s see.....

[Vendome]

funnier than my post at #8

[Daffynition]

Gee. I was thinking of submarines.

[GnuHere]

Cute - I love polar bears!

[mylife]

I bet Blackfins crew had slugs in their Remington 870’s

[SZonian]

"Experts have rarely seen the behaviour, and they say the latest find suggests it may be a more common practice than previously thought."

And that's the problem right there. So called "experts" who don't know squat "thinking" and "suggesting" about some of the more unique habits of Polar Bears then telling the climate change wackos that the bears are dying off due to "climate change". Pffftt!

Nice pic though.

SZ

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

[JoeProBono]

[LucyT]

[LucyT]

[Bratch]

[Daffynition]

That bear is 'at-the-ready' ...ready pounce or run like heck.

[Daffynition]

[JoeProBono]

[Daffynition]

[MS.BEHAVIN]

Hey, My!
Check out post # 10!

[mylife]

I saw dat. USS Blackfin

[MS.BEHAVIN]

Don’t open da hatch!
LOL

[6SJ7]

“Oh, yeah. Oooh, ahhh, that’s how it always starts. Then later there’s running and screaming.”
(Lost World: Jurassic Park)

[mylife]

Someones out there with a camera and a gun

[mylife]

L0L!

[JoeProBono]

[Daffynition]

[Kirkwood]

“Correct me if I am wrong but I know of no bear species that is raised by both parents. “

The sentence says nothing about both parents raising a cub. It speaks of cubs (plural) of other species (also plural), so to be grammatically correct, it refers to parents (also plural). You could argue that saying mothers would be a better description, but there is nothing wrong with the sentence. You just read more into it than it actually stated.

[Pontiac]

The sentence says nothing about both parents raising a cub. It speaks of cubs (plural) of other species (also plural),

Perhaps you should read this sentence again.

Cubs of other bear species such as the sloth bear also ride on their parents.

Clearly the word bear used in this sentence is intended to be descriptive of the noun “species”. The sentence then goes on to suggest that the sloth bear’s cubs ride upon the back of its parents (plural), meaning both parents.

I can not imagine any intelligent person reading that sentence to mean that other non-bear species (such as wildebeests) ride upon their parents back. In the context of the article it would be a far stretch to suggest that the sentence means anything other than for the bear cubs to ride upon the back of either parent.

I would suggest that the author of this article is completely ignorant of bear behavior in regards to cub rearing.