Nursing behavior of wild polar bears in the Canadian High Arctic-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Nursing behavior of wild polar bears in the Canadian High Arctic

Published:2024-08-01 Issue:8 Volume:102 Page:663-672
ISSN:0008-4301
Container-title:Canadian Journal of Zoology
language:en
Short-container-title:Can. J. Zool.

Author:

Stirling Ian¹²^ORCID,Burns Lynne E.²^ORCID,Regehr Eric V.³^ORCID,Laidre Kristin L.³⁴^ORCID,Spencer Cheryl²^ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9, Canada

2. Wildlife Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, c/o Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E9, Canada

3. Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105, USA

4. Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Box 570, 3900 Nuuk, Greenland

Abstract

During 17 spring and summer field seasons between 1973 and 1999, we documented 220 bouts of nursing by dependent polar bear ( Ursus maritimus Phipps, 1774) cubs at Radstock Bay, Nunavut, Canada. The overall mean duration of nursing bouts for cubs-of-the-year (COY) and yearlings (YRLG) litters was 7.1 min (standard deviation (SD) = 3.3, range = 1–23). Mean nursing bout durations of one- and two-cub litters of COY and YRLG in spring and summer seasons ranged from 6.09 to 7.78 min and from 5.00 to 9.18 min, respectively. The overall mean duration of inter-nursing intervals for COY and YRLG litters was 5.7 h (SD = 4.9, range = 0.0–35.0). The mean inter-nursing interval for one-cub litters was 6.4 h (SD = 4.6, range = 0.0–20.2) and for two-cub litters was 5.1 h (SD = 5.1, range = 0.0–35.0). We found no evidence for effects of season or cub age class on nursing behavior. We found weak evidence that two-cub litters nurse slightly longer than one-cub litters, potentially reflecting reduced nursing efficiency due to sibling rivalry. There was neither evidence for diel patterns in nursing behavior nor a detectable relationship between the cessation of nursing and the onset of hunting or sleeping by the adult female.

Funder

Environment and Climate Change Canada

University of Alberta

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Northwest Territories Department of Environment and Natural Resources

Nunavut Wildlife Management Board

Polar Bears International

Publisher

Canadian Science Publishing

Link

https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/cjz-2024-0001

Reference41 articles.

1. Observational Study of Behavior: Sampling Methods

2. Lactation performance in polar bears is associated with fasting time and energetic state

3. Polar bear milk. IV. Gross composition, fatty acid, and mineral constitution

4. Aspects of milk composition and lactation in polar bears