A popular way for environmental groups to raise money is to ask donors to “adopt a bear,” or whatever animal they are aimed at protecting.

A grizzly bear sow in Yellowstone had her own ideas this summer, actually adopting two cubs from one of her neighbors. Chuck Schwartz, the top research for the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, which keeps track of Yellowstone’s bears, revealed this strange but not unheard of behavior this week.

Two radio-collared sows with cubs were living in the lush high meadows Dunraven Pass in August when a pack of wolves split the cubs off from their mothers. One sow had been seen with three cubs and the second with two prior to the encounter with the wolves.

“On August 11th, a female with 4 cubs was first observed frequenting the same roadside habitats, exhibiting the same behavior, and identical in physical characteristics as the second female,” Schwartz said. “On August 16th, the collared female that had had 3 cubs was seen with only 1cub. Additionally, there were no further observations of a female with 2 cubs in the area, suggesting the second female adopted 2 of the first female’s cubs.”

Back in the days when grizzlies ate in garbage dumps scientists had documented adoption of cubs by grizzly mothers. Schwartz and his team have taken hair samples to do DNA tests so they known for sure.

The good news for grizzlies in Yellowstone is that 50 unduplicated females with cubs of the year were counted in the Yellowstone ecosystem during 2007. This is the second highest minimum count recorded.

The previous high was 52 during 2002. Biologists observed 108 cubs with 50 sows, a new high number of cubs observed.

On the down side, 18 known and probable grizzly deaths or live removals were known in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Removing live grizzlies are counted the same as deaths by biologists. Of these 18 deaths or live removals, eight were the result of management removals after conflicts with humans, Schwartz said.

Two bears were hit and killed by vehicles. Five bears died in conflicts with hunters and two died naturally. Another death remains a mystery.

The poor food crop for bears this year portends a drop in cub production next year. But this first year of living without the protection of the Endangered Species Act went reasonably well despite the problems caused by drought, elk ranch gut piles, suburban development, hunters and even wolves.