Featured Image Credit: Ian Plant via Caters News Agency
By K. Snyder
Don’t be deceived by the jovial nature of this photo. These sibling polar bear cubs aren’t involved in a literal bear hug — they’re fighting for dominance.
As siblings, this is a completely natural thing for cubs to do. Play-fighting and wrestling are common behaviors in many predatory species, especially in harsh environments like the Arctic. Fights for dominance help siblings build hunting skills and establish a social hierarchy among themselves.
Some of the other photos reveal the more confrontational side of the encounter.
Polar bears have to consume massive amounts of meat to survive life on the ice. Their main source of food is seal meat, which often requires wrangling a massive 150-pound seal out of the water and successfully subduing it. Wrestling a sibling roughly the same size as a seal is great practice for these predators.
These particular cubs were seen in the Arctic Ocean, in the waters of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The photos were taken by Ian Plant during a trip to the refuge. Ian reported that even though the playing was rough, neither cub emerged as the ‘victor’ of this play-fight. Guess that means they’ll be “hugging it out” more in the future!
To see the rest of the photos, check out the original article.