Rare image of white bear piggybacking on the North Pole

A tourist saw a scene of a white bear piggybacking his son while visiting the Arctic in July.

On July 21, Angela Plumb, an English tourist, boarded a ship to Norway's Svalbard Islands to visit the Arctic. When she arrived at an area on Nordaustlandet - the second largest island in Svalbard - she saw a white bear about 7 months old sitting on her mother's back.

" Baby bears ride their mothers' backs when they swim in the Arctic Ocean. After going to the shore, the bear is still sitting on his mother's back for a while before falling ," Plumb told the BBC.

Most of the time of the year, polar bears (Ursus maritimus) live on ice sheets. Their main food is seals. The biggest challenge for white bears is to move and navigate in the waters between the giant floating ice blocks.

A 7-month-old white bear rides her mother's back in the North Pole.(Photo by Angela Plumb)

After seeing a chip ring on her mother's neck, Ms. Plumb contacted Dr. Jon Aars - a scientist from Norway's Arctic Research Institute - to announce the incident. She asked if it was a common behavior in white bears.

" I have never seen or heard of such behavior. So I asked other researchers and they said that sometimes the white bear is piggybacking, but the scene is very rare ," Aars said.

Some previous studies have shown that white bears climb on their mothers' backs when moving through deep waters. Young individuals of many other bears - such as pig bears - also often ride their mothers' backs. Dr. Aars thinks that behavior is good for baby bears.

" When riding on the back of a white bear's mother, she will be exposed to less water. If they go to the water they will have to swim, while their fur and fat are not thick enough to withstand the cold. Limit exposure to cold water. is one of the ways for baby bears to increase survival in the Arctic , "he said.

Dr. Aars published Plumb's findings on the September issue of Polar Biology magazine.