Kermode Bear
The Kermode bear is thought by scientists to be a genetic variation of the black bear that roams throughout British Columbia. They believe that the presence of a single recessive gene in these creatures is responsible for the white coat that as many as one in ten of these bears is born with and retain throughout their lives.
While the Kermode
bear has been sighted in northeastern British Columbia and as far east in North
America as Minnesota, it lives in the greatest numbers on the islands off the
north-central coast of British Columbia. White coat Kemode bears are found most
frequently on Gribbell Island and Princess Royal Island, situated between the
coastal mainland and the Queen Charlotte Islands. Scientists believe there is
such a high concentration of the white coat Kermode bears on these islands
because they are geographically isolated from other black bear populations.
Scientists
estimate there are 1,200 black and white Kermode bears in the coast area that
stretches from around the northern tip of Vancouver Island northwards to the
Alaska panhandle. On Gribbell Island, up to 30 per cent of the bears can be
white while on the larger Princess Royal Island, about 10 per cent have the
white coat.
The
Kermode white bear fascinates geneticists and wilderness lovers. Scientists,
keen to isolate the gene that causes the white coat, are conducting DNA analysis
on the bear so that they can determine how common it is elsewhere on the continent.
They also want to determine whether the Kermode white bear is a race or simply
the product of a concentration of a gene in a given area. Researchers have
been analyzing fur samples from “rubbing” trees used by the bears, and have
set out snares across trails to capture hairs to examine for genetic information.
For
further information:
Erin
Airton Tel: 604-808-6420
Grant
Scott Tel: 250-480-8193