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The Kermode, or Spirit, Bear
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| A longer article about these rare and beautiful animals (which are black bears that, due to a double recessive gene, are in fact borne white without however being albinos) will sooner or later appear on this page. | |
| In the meantime I hope you will enjoy seeing some of the photos that I've taken of the Kermode Bears or Spirit Bears (Ursus americanus kermodei) and the Black Bears (Ursus americanus) that inhabit Princess Royal Island. |
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| The Kermode Bear, aka Spirit Bear (thus named by Princess Royal Island's early inhabitants), is a rare white subspecies of the Black Bear. The Spirit Bear is not an albino, but rather a Black Bear that turns out white due to a recessive gene that must be present in both parents for the cub to be borne "white". It has been estimated that (based on the population living on Princess Royal Island) roughly only one out of ten Black Bear newborns is "white". | |
| The Spirit Bear only sparingly occurs in the rainforest of British Columbia, Canada, and the vast majority of the population is found on Princess Royal Island. Even there, the Spirit Bear is very difficult to encounter: due to the spawning period of salmon, September is the month during which one stands the greatest chances to see it. | |
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| Kermode Bears are also facing significant threats of extinction for habitat destruction were pending plans for massive industrial logging ever approved. | |
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| If you are interested and want to learn more about the Spirit bears, there's an excellent book on the subject by Charles Russell: "Spirit Bear: Encounters With the White Bear of the Western Rainforest", Key Porter Books. You can read my review of this book here or buy it through Amazon.com here. Also, you may want to check out a few more Spirit Bear images in my Photo Gallery. | |
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| As an alternative, the following Web sites (among others) provide a lot of good information regarding Kermode/Spirit Bears: | |
| http://www.savespiritbear.org/ http://www.kingpacificlodge.com/serv_wildlife.cfm http://www.kingpacificlodge.com/area_flora.cfm http://www.kermode.net/terrace/spiritbear.html http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/nsbgb.asp |
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