The spirit bear, also called the Kermode bear, is a black bear with white fur caused by a rare recessive gene. It lives only in and around British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest.
Spirit bears are not a separate species and not albino. They are American black bears (Ursus americanus) that carry two copies of a gene variant that blocks the production of dark pigment in their fur. This page covers the genetics, what the bear means to the Coastal First Nations who have lived alongside it for generations, and how it is being protected today.
What causes a spirit bear’s white coat?
A single change in a gene called MC1R stops the bear’s fur from producing dark pigment when a cub inherits two copies of the variant. Researchers Kermit Ritland, Craig Newton, and H. Dawn Marshall documented this in a study of 220 black bears published in Current Biology in 2001. All 22 white bears in the study carried two copies of the variant, while black-coated bears carried one copy or none.
Because the trait is recessive, two black-coated bears can each carry one copy of the gene and still produce a white cub. A black bear with one copy shows no outward sign of carrying the gene. This section covers the coat-color gene only. It does not cover general black bear biology, which the animal adaptation section addresses more broadly.
What does the spirit bear mean to the Coastal First Nations?
The Gitga’at and Kitasoo/Xai’xais Nations, two of the many Native nations whose territories include the bear’s core range, regard the spirit bear as highly significant, and it appears in their traditional songs, dances, and stories. The Gitga’at call the bear moksgmol, the Tsimshian word for white bear, according to a joint statement from the Kitasoo/Xai’xais and Gitga’at Nations.
This page reports what these Nations have published for general audiences. It does not retell specific traditional stories, since those belong to the Nations themselves to share or not share, and it does not speak for any nation not named here.
How are spirit bears being protected?
In 2022, the Kitasoo/Xai’xais and Gitga’at Nations led a joint proposal that closed black bear hunting across roughly 8,158 square kilometers of their territories, about 13 percent of the Great Bear Rainforest. Chief Councillor Doug Neasloss explained the reasoning in the Nations’ 2022 press release: any black bear shot in the region could be carrying the recessive gene that produces spirit bears, so protecting black bears protects the trait itself.
The Nations also run bear-viewing tourism as a conservation-linked economic alternative to hunting. This section covers the 2022 hunting closure. It does not cover broader Great Bear Rainforest land-use agreements, which involve additional Nations and government partners not detailed here.
Where do spirit bears live?
Spirit bears live in the temperate rainforest of coastal British Columbia, concentrated on a handful of islands including Princess Royal Island and Gribbell Island. Estimates of how common the white-coat gene is among the region’s black bears have varied between studies, and researchers continue to refine that number, so this page does not state a single figure for it.
Sources
- Ritland, K., Newton, C., and Marshall, H.D. (2001). Inheritance and population structure of the white-phased “Kermode” black bear, Current Biology.
- Kitasoo/Xai’xais and Gitga’at Nations. Kitasoo Xai’xais and Gitga’at Nations Celebrate Ban on Black Bear Hunting, 2022.