Bear Hug: Mother-Infant Bonding in Ursidae

Wild populations of bears are in decline. Habitat loss, human encroachment, and increasing human disturbance and human-bear conflict are major threats to their survival. Conservation management in the field is now important for all species of bears.

Breeding programs are of increasing importance, as zoos are predicted to play an increasing role in the genetic management of small and increasingly isolated populations. Important for population sustainability is the production and care of cubs, yet little is known about bear reproductive biology and maternal care patterns. There are no scientific publications on the mother-infant relationship in the denning phase for any bear species, except for the giant panda.

Our goals are to understand the mother-infant relationship in bears, including how much mothers invest in offspring, the possible costs of this investment, and why some mothers may provide inadequate care or abandon or even kill cubs. Vocalizations are of key importance in evaluating the mother-infant relationship, as they are used by the cub to signal need; we are studying this aspect of communication using state-of-the-art technologies to record and analyze these vocalizations.

To conduct this work, we place videocameras in maternal dens and collect behavioral data systematically. The main focus is the most endangered bears (other than giant pandas, which we have already studied): sun, sloth, Andean or spectacled, Asiatic black, and polar bears. As a result of this work, we hope to obtain a picture of what good (and poor) maternal care looks like in each species and use this information to make management recommendations that will nurture offspring production and survival and to establish baselines so that the impacts of human disturbances can be identified.