Spirit bears are a subspecies of the American Black Bear. Native to the British Columbia region of Canada, most of the bears are found in the Great Bear Rainforest. This 15.5-million-acre area is located along the Pacific coast. The region is rocky and mountainous with a number of islands that may play a part in the bears’ survival.
The bear’s official species name, Ursus americanus kermodei, comes from Francis Kermode, a past director of the Royal British Columbia Museum. Kermode was a friend of zoologist William Halladay, who was the first to describe the bear. Kermode spent a significant amount of time researching this bear, and was the first to fully understand what made this bear different.
The Other White Bear
Although these bears are predominantly brown, this subspecies, also known as Kermode bears, produces an unusually large number of white bears in each generation. These bears are not albinos; albinos would have light eyes and pink noses and white spirit bears have brown eyes and brown noses, with black skin underneath their white fur. Currently only a few hundred of these bears are known to exist.
Often called “ghost” bears because of their white appearance, it is thought that the large number of white bears may have come about because a small population of the bears became increasingly isolated on Princess Royal Island. Through inbreeding, the recessive gene that causes white fur evolved to the point where one out of every ten Kermode bears is born white.
Importance in First Nations Culture
The spirit-like appearance of these “ghost bears” makes them sacred to the First Nations tribes who call them “moskgm'ol,” or “white bear.” According to the legends of the First Nation people of the region, a raven god changed one of every ten black bears white to remind the native people what the world was like during the Ice Age. Because of this legend, the spirit bears play an important role in tribal culture and traditions.
Life in the Great Bear Rainforest
According to the Valhalla Wilderness Society spirit bears subsist mainly on salmon, berries, and green plants found in their rainforest habitat. They spend winters hibernating in dry cavities inside old growth trees. Like grizzly bears, the spirit bears’ cubs are frequently born while the mother is still hibernating. The newborn cubs remain curled up in the den with their mother until spring when she emerges from hibernation and takes them out into the rainforest for the first time.
Endangered Habitat?
Over the last few decades the bears’ habitat has grown smaller because of the expansion of the logging industry in that part of British Columbia. Additionally, as spirit bears have become more well-known, more and more tourists are flocking to the area hoping for a glimpse of this elusive animal, causing more wear and tear on the bears' environment.
In 2006, after decades of debate and protests, the logging companies, conservationists, First Nation tribes, and the Canadian government reached an agreement. 4.4 million acres of land were designated as a spirit bear preserve and are off limits to loggers. This agreement allows limited logging in the rest of Great Bear Rainforest, as long as the logging is conducted in a sustainable, environmentally sound manner.
In February 2006, the spirit bear was named as the official animal of British Columbia.
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