This is a spirit or kermode bear that I got to photograph a little while back in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. You can see more spirt bears in the spirit bear gallery. These very special bears are actually black bears born white. They are not albino, they do not have pink eyes and often retain their black noses too and are born out of a recessive gene that must be present in both parents, it is not unusual to see a white mom with black cubs or a black mom with white cubs. This bear had been chasing salmon on a river when he heard a movement behind him, which turned out to be another spirit bear. It is estimated that between 2 – 400 of these bears remain in the wild on the BC coast. This was the guy selected by Canadian Geographic, as mentioned in my 2011 Newsletter if you haven’t already seen it.
