This is an extract from an article I wrote for the magazine ‘In Focus’ and gives some insight into the world of the spirit bear…
Capturing the Spirit
Comox Valley photographer recounts his experience with the mysterious Spirit Bears…
By Steve Williamson • June, 2010
Spirit Bear, Ursus Americanus Kermodai or Kermode Bear. Whichever name you call it, one thing is certain—when you get to see this rare white-furred inhabitant of British Columbia’s Northwest coast, you will be transfixed. Comox Valley conservationist and photographer Steve Williamson certainly was…
Spirit Bear Enjoying a Pink Salmon
In 2003, although I didn’t know it at the time, I got my first look at what I would later learn was called the Great Bear Rainforest on BC’s northwest coast. As a tourist visiting from England, I was traveling aboard a cruise ship bound for Alaska. I was amazed at the region I was traveling through and returned to the UK determined to learn more. Three years later my wife and I immigrated to Canada and set up home in the beautiful Comox Valley, hoping I could use it as a springboard to learn all about the BC coast.
Since then, I have spent a great deal of time working with conservation charities up and down the coast. In the Fall of 2009, I had been doing some field work for the organization Pacific Wild, working with the Gitga’at community in Hartley Bay to establish live video from the bush back to a classroom in the village school. Using a wireless radio link connected to a computer in the classroom, pupils could then actually see and track bears and other wildlife…
To read the full article click here: www.infocusmagazine.ca/2010/capturing-the-spirit
And you can check out more spirit bear images here: Spirit Bears