These cream-colored American black bears are found only along the central coast of British Columbia.
The most numerous bear species in the world is the American black bear. It is found in every province and territory of Canada, except Prince Edward Island, and it continues to recolonize its former range in the United States. These bears are the only bears native to the eastern part of North America. The vast majority of these bears found in the east are black with brown muzzles. Some have some white on their chests. Because Europeans settled this part of the continent first, the animal was called the black bear.
However, this species comes in several different phases. There is a cinnamon or brown color phase of the black bear, which is more common in the central and western parts of the continent. In Alaska, “blue glacier” black bears occur with a bluish gray tinge to their coats. White black bears have been documented, such as this one killed in Western Pennsylvania.
However, along the central part of British Columbia’s coast, one tenth of the black bears are light cream-colored. These bears are called “Kermode bears,” after Francis Kermode, the Canadian zoologist who first described this color phase. It has recently been designated the provincial animal of British Columbia.
This color phase of black bear is found in the temperate rainforest, which is under threat from wide scale logging. This bear is found right in the heart of an extensive tract of this temperate rainforest, which has been called the Great Bear Rainforest.
WHITE PHASE BLACK BEAR ALSO KNOW IN ALBERTA CANADA AREA AREA NOT EXCLUSIVE TO BRITICH COLUMBIA
I don’t know whether it is the same subspecies in Alberta, because Alberta doesn’t have temperate rain forests. I am talking about a white or pinkish bear from the rain forests of western BC. However, because black bears range out long distances from where they were born, maybe the white bears are appearing in Alberta, too.
We’ve had some albinos with pink eyes in the Eastern US. Most black bears in the East are black (which is why they are called black bears). However, they come in a lot of different colors. There are even blue bears in Alaska.
There was a cinnamon black bear killed in Pennsylvania– last year, I think. And that color is almost unknown in the East.
Is there a connection?The White Black Bear of British Columbia and the White King Salmon of British Columbia. Did both change genetically at the same time for the same reason??? GusG
It’s doubtful. These bears are white because it’s a mutation. For an animal like a black bear, color really isn’t that important. The only thing is now this white color is protected in British Columbia, so they are now being selected for it in the same way elephants without tusks have been selected for in many parts of Africa.
White king salmon swim around in the ocean most of their lives. They are prey to salmon sharks and many other things in the ocean. They are that color because it blends into the ocean better. The two animals share habitat only when the salmon are going upriver to spawn or when the fry go down the river into the ocean. I believe they are called white kings because their flesh is white, not because they are white.