What is a Spirit Bear?
This article will explore a subspecies of black bears called Kermode bears (named after Francis Kermode, the director of the British Columbia Provincial Museum, now the Royal British Columbia Museum, in the early 1900s). These bears are also referred to as “spirit bears” or “ghost bears” due to a recessive gene mutation which causes their white fur. Population geneticist Kermit Ritland discovered that this coat colour in Kermode bears, “[...] involves the same gene that produces the blonde coat of golden retrievers.”
Kermode bears only live in British Columbia, primarily in the coastal rainforests of Princess Royal Island and Gribbell Island. Kermode bears are omnivores and they focus on different food sources at different times of the year. For example, in the Spring, Kermode bears often eat low-elevation vegetation such as skunk cabbage and sedge. However, in Autumn, salmon become a staple of the Kermode bears’ diets as Pacific salmon return to their place of birth to spawn.
To read the rest of this article, follow this link to the Starfish Canada website where the original piece has been published:
The Great Bear Rainforest: Home of the Elusive Spirit Bear - Starfish Canada