Polar bear Uslada teaches her two four month old cubs Petr and Krasin how to fish in their enclosure during their first appearance at the St Petersburg Zoo, Russia. Uslada can be seen catching a carp as the other her two cubs follow her with her catch.
6 more pics of the polar bear Uslada teaching her two cubs how to fish at the St Petersburg Zoo after the jump.
Polar Bears are marine mammals. In this photo it is easy to see why. The physical composition of a polar bear lends itself to a sleek appearance whereby in the Arctic waters they swim as if a dolphin. The paws of the Polar Bear have the same physical skeletal structure of that of dolphins and whales.
It is fascinating to realize while so many aspects of nature is acclaimed to be instinctual, they are actually techniques passed down from generation to generation.
While cubs easily mimic their parents, that is a clear indication that a break in the bonding of species generations, no different than that of human parents would lead to a severe disruption in the ability of a species to survive.
A greater question is that while zoos act as a place where species survive, what are the adverse effects to 'survival' of a species after decades of extinction in the wild?
While the female Polar Bear in this series of pictures is obviously teaching a technique for feeding to her cubs, would she be able to survive in the wild and do the very same thing? The answer most assuredly would be no and she would succumb to elements and challenges to 'find the fish' long before she would ever store enough body fat (Polar Bears have adipose tissue and not blubber) to sustain attempts at survival.
Female Polar Bears teaching cubs in zoos to 'capture and eat fish' is just one degree away from a circus act.
