researcher in Canada have conducted an extensive genetic study on polar bears living in the Western Hudson Bay , bring out a turn of finding that put up to our antecedently limited understanding of these baffling ice bears ’ felt up pattern . Among the most surprising discoveries was the detection of a brace of genetically identical twin – the first such case ever reported in any species of bear .
Though polar bear are often born inlitters of two or three cubs , all of those try inprevious studieswere find to diverge in their genetic makeup , indicate that they had come from freestanding fertilize egg . However , after analyzing the deoxyribonucleic acid of 4,449 bear pile up between 1966 and 2011 , the team expose evidence of a individual pair ofmonozygoticpolar bear Twin – meaning siblings originating from a exclusive fertilized egg .
The pair , which were two year old at the time of their capture in November 2003 , were found to partake the same genes on all 25 loci – or positions on a chromosome – that the researchers tested . The chance of this occurring by coincidence has been depend at 1.64 x 10–11 , or 164 one-billionth of a per centum , start the researchers to reliably conclude that they are indeed monozygotic twins , as reported in the journalbioRxiv .
In addition to the unexpected discovery of these monovular twins , the information also provided grounds of six case of cub adoption , whereby adult female were found to be accompanied by infants to whom they were not related .
Such a phenomenon has beenreportedbefore , although the reasons for this are pretty unsettled , especially since females cut back their own endurance chances – as well as those of their lifelike cubs – by giving up their milk to non - related cub .
One explanation put onward by the researchers is that mother may have picked up isolated cubs without noticing , possibly during periods of high bear density , such as the spring lair egress or the fall fast period , when bear congregate on the shore .
or else , they intimate that some mothers whose natural litter have died may adopt stray laddie because their maternal instincts oblige them to do so . However , they have prevail out the opening of cubs becoming separate from their family radical due to the temporary immobilisation of mothers by scientist for research purposes . Indeed , none of the biological mother of the adopted sonny boy were capture between the clip of the greenhorn ’ nascence and their first observation with their adoptive mother , mean that this switch could not have fall out when these genetic mothers were scientifically incapacitated .
