The Mother Bear Chose Herself
The mother bear realized that the only way to get out of this situation alive was to do it alone. So, she shook the cubs off her back and threw them into the unforgiving waters. Then she started swimming towards the shoreline by herself, leaving her two cubs behind. Maybe she thought that the quickest way to get food would be to do it alone, or maybe she spotted a lone fish in the water across the lake, but no matter what happened, she abandoned her two children.