The Spirit Bear is one of the rarest animals in the world. It is truly a transformative experience to spend time in one’s presence.
Current population estimates are under review and vary from 50 to 150 individuals. This elusive animal is only found in a small portion of the Great Bear Rainforest. Kitasoo/Xai’xais territory is home to the largest proportion of the spirit bear population and the only Spirit Bear conservancy.
We can spot this amazing animal at any time during our season, however, the most reliable viewing is linked to the salmon run. The salmon run varies year to year because of rainfall and other mysterious factors, we generally see the first salmon enter rivers between mid-August and the beginning of September.
Roughly 50% of our guests will set eyes on the secretive white bear that remains hidden in the trackless wilderness of The Great Bear Rainforest.
Spirit bears are rare white-coated black bears (Ursus americanus kermodei) that live in the coastal temperate rainforests of Northwest British Columbia. Their striking colour is caused by an uncommon recessive genetic trait. Spirit bears are not a unique species or subspecies, but a unique colouration of the coastal British Columbian black bear subspecies kermodei.
Spirit bears are rare white- or cream-coated black bears whose colouration is caused by a genetic trait that is uncommon within coastal black bears. Their entire coat is white, from the roots to the tips of their hair. However, they are not albinos and as a result have dark eyes and noses similar to black-coated black bears
Their unique colouration is caused by a rare variation at the Mc1r gene (melanocortin 1 receptor), which is involved in melanin production, or the pigment responsible for skin, hair and eye colour. This is the same gene that controls for red hair in humans and blond coats in Labrador retrievers.
What is a Spirit Bear?
Spirit bears are rare black bears with white or creamy fur, brown eyes, dark nose pads, and nearly white claws. They are not polar bears or albinos. Maybe 100 exist
Most Spirit Bears live on Princess Royal and Gribbell Islands along the rainforest coast of British Columbia. They are considered a subspecies of black bears called Kermode bears (Ursus americanus kermodeii). About 20 percent of the bears on those islands are white; the rest are black. On the mainland, the percentage of white bears drops off drastically with distance from those islands.
Dr. Kermit Rutland and Craig Newton studied the genetics of white black bears. The white fur of Kermode bears is the result of a double recessive gene unique to this subspecies. A single nucleotide replacement in the melanocortin-1 (Mc-1r) receptor portion of that gene causes it to produce adenine rather than guanine. When both parents contribute this recessive gene, the result is white fur.
Outside British Columbia only about one in a million black bears is white. One of these white bears, a subadult male, lived near Orr, Minnesota, in 1997. Hair samples showed him to be genetically different from white Kermode bears. Named Halo, he caused such a media stir that the Minnesota legislature gave protection to all white bears in the state, but Halo remains the only white bear ever reported in Minnesota.
However, the next sighting of a white black bear was only 200 miles northwest of Orr. In 2000, a black mother with two white cubs turned up near Beausejour, Manitoba. The genetics of this family were not studied.
In 2004, a black mother with a white cub was discovered about 300 miles northwest of Beausejour near Cedar Lake, Manitoba. Named Maskwa, this white cub carried a new mutation on the same gene that determines coat color in Kermode bears.
These four white black bears are the only ones reported outside British Columbia in recent decades.
Accepted scientific name: Ursus americanus kermodei (William Temple Hornaday, 1905)
Description: Both black and white colour phases, around 10% being white. Adult bears are around 180 cm to 2 metres in length and males weigh from around 125 kg to 365 kg and average around 200 to 230 kg. Females weigh between around 110 and 180 kg and average around 135 kg. White Kermode bears, also known as Spirit bears are the result of a recessive gene. Bears carrying this gene can be black or white but for white offspring to be born both parents must carry it.
Range: The Great Bear Rainforest of the central and north coast of British Columbia, Canada, specifically the coastal mainland from Burke Channel to Nass River and some adjacent coastal islands (including Princess Royal) and inland towards Hazleton.
Habitat: Mixed coastal rainforest and shoreline. Typical trees of this area are the sitka spruce, western hemlock and yellow cedar.
Status: Estimates of the current population vary between around 400 and 1,200 individuals. Inter-breeding with other subspecies of American black bear suggest that, in time, the Kermode subspecies will cease to exist. The bear is not specifically protected although some parts of its habitat are. Until recently it was thought that here were between 100 and 500 of the white phase bears. It is now thought that these are much more rare with a maximum population of no more than around 250 bears. Life span: Normally between 20 and 25 years in the wild,
Food: Omnivorous, eating grasses, forbs, bulbs, nuts, berries, fruits, insects, small mammals, deer fawns, moose calves, carrion and salmon during spawning from late summer onwards.
Behaviour:. The bears hibernate in winter dens, usually in cavities in old-growth trees. Hibernation can last for up to seven months. Females are Intercourse mature at three or four years of age and mating takes place during the summer. Cubs are born in the winter den in January or February, are weaned at around eight months, but remain with the mother usually for seventeen months during which time she will not become pregnant again. Litters are usually of two cubs but single cubs and triplets have been recorded.
Threats: Oil development (tar sands pipeline; see “Action” below). Habitat loss due to logging operations. Climate change threatens the Great Bear Rainforest ecosystem.
Spirit Bear Foundation – A collaboration between the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation and conservation scientists conducting locally relevant, ecosystem-based wildlife research to address pressing conservation concerns in British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest.
Keeping the Spirit Bear Coast Clear of Tar Sands Oil (2016)
Kitasoo Spirit Bear Conservancy – BC Parks website.
Spirit Bear Lodge – Spirit Bear Lodge is Indigenous-owned, offering exclusive access to wildlife viewing areas and cultural sites within the Kitasoo Xai’xais traditional territory.
Long kept secret, Canada’s ghostly spirit bears are even rarer than thought (2020)
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