This is a Black Bear

Really...and it's not just another albino.

   Of course...I think that "Black bear" is a silly name for Ursus americanus anyway. While most "Black bears" are actually black, there are sections of North America where up to 60% of them are brown. These "Cinnamon" bears are born frequently into litters containing black cubs also. White spots turn up occasionally on the chest of either color phase.

   But black and brown aren't the only color schemes that the black bear is offered in. In the glaciers of the Saint Elias mountain range in southeastern Alaska, there is a bluish color phase known as...understandably...the "Glacier" bear. The blue bears have become increasingly rare because, it is thought, of interbreeding with the more common brown and black color phases.

   The most bizarre and interesting color phase, though, is the one shown here...the Kermode bear. This bear was first described to science in 1905 by Dr. William Hornaday of the New York Zoo. He considered them a separate species and named them Ursus kermodei after a Canadian colleague, Francis Kermode, who had worked tirelessly to secure specimens and information. It wasn't until 1928 that the Kermode bear was re-classified as a geographic race of the "Black bear". 

   U. a. kermodei is only found in three small, isolated, pockets on the Pacific coast of British Columbia. Most of the bears are your standard, run-of-the-mill, no frills, black. Other Kermodes can be reddish, gray, yellow, or even orange...but about one in ten show the cream/white "spirit bear" coloration. In the Tsimshian language, these bears are known as "Moksgm'ol".

   While the white bears are protected by law, the other ninety percent...the ones that carry the gene but don't show the coloration...are fair game. Also, timber companies are interested in logging the islands and areas where these bears live. For the past couple of years debate has been heating up over a proposed park centered on Princess Royal Island. "Spirit Bear Park" would encompass 265,000 hectares, (1,000 sq. miles "ish"), and provide complete protection for the ten or fifteen white bears that live there and their black kin, as well as grizzlies, wolves, ancient stands of Sitka Spruce, and important spawning streams for salmon. The B.C. government has counter-proposed a 39,000 hectare park, giving the rest to loggers. The clear-cutting began last year. We will just have to wait and see what kind of impact it has on the bears. Black bears of any color are pretty good at adapting to man, and I think that in the long run, the Kermode Bear will survive, even if it's numbers are reduced...the salmon probably won't be so lucky...-S.