Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, July 21, 2008

THEBACHA/FORT SMITH - It may seem like an oxymoron, but a white black bear was recently spotted near Fort Smith.

The rare bear was seen on June 18 crossing Highway 5 near Little Buffalo River, about 50 km west of the community.

The white bear was travelling with a black bear when seen by two employees of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

"It was almost a ghost white," said Gabe Cabral, a forest officer with the department, adding it also had the odd speckle of brownish or cinnamon-coloured hair.

"It was a beautiful bear," he added.

Cabral took out his camera and ran onto the highway's right of way as the bears went into the bush, but was unable to get a good photo.

The bear started to make strange sounds and Cabral backed away.

"I wish I had my camera out at the time it was crossing the highway," he said.

It appeared the white bear was male because it was much larger than the accompanying black bear, he said.

Cabral noted people saw a white bear around Angus Tower on Highway 5 last year, adding it was probably the same bear.

An expert on polar and grizzly bears in the NWT said such a white-coated black bear is extremely rare.

"I've never heard of a white-phased black bear in the Northwest Territories," said Andrew Derocher, a biological sciences professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. "It's pretty much once per decade or less than that."

Derocher's guess is the bear spotted near Fort Smith is not an albino.

Its white coat is probably caused by a recessive gene, he said. The bear likely has the same genetic trait as kermode bears - also known as spirit bears - on the British Columbia coast, where one in 100 bears might have the recessive gene.

Across the rest of North America, anywhere from one in a 1,000 to one in 10,000 bears have the gene.

Derocher explained the mother and the father of such a bear must have the recessive gene to create a white coat. Even then, one cub might be white while another may be black in the same litter.

"There is a whole range of colour variations in black bears," he said, noting they can also be brown, strawberry blonde and blue/grey in Alaska.

The professor said Fort Smith is far outside the range of polar bears, adding there has never have been a successful hybrid between a black bear and a polar bear.