KERMODE BEAR -- GHOST BEAR -- WHITE SPIRIT BEAR

This wonderful bear, Ursa Americanus Kermodei, is an otherwise ordinary American black bear that, thanks to a recessive gene, is born with white fur. There is a recessive gene which both parents have to have to make the black bear white. There can be a family with white and black bears at the same time. This bear, named after Frank Kermode, former director of the Royal British Columbia Museum, is a genetic abnormality, but not an albino. Where an albino would have a white or pink nose and light-colored eyes, a Kermode bear has a dark nose and eyes.

In the beautiful rain forests of Princess Royal Island, just off the coast of British Columbia in Canada, the bear population has been isolated for so long that this recessive gene for white fur shows up in large numbers: one out of every ten bears is white. In the past few years the island has become the center of a struggle between conservationists and developers.

Takla is an Open Edition and sells for $295

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