A genetically rare black bear with white fur – often called a “spirit bear” – has been living in the wilds of the western Upper Peninsula.

The aurora borealis over Lake Superior

 

An approximately 100-pound male bear with blonde colorings appeared this month, September 2022, on a trail camera trained on a bait pile set up in advance of the annual bear hunting season. W

Wildlife officials said this is the first time in recorded Michigan history such an animal has been confirmed in the state.

The bear has a nearly all-white coat, but with some cinnamon colorings on the top of its head and neck. This marks only the fifth time a “spirit bear” has been confirmed outside of British Columbia, which means this Michigan animal is genetically a one-in-a-million bear, according to the nonprofit North American Bear Center in Ely, Minnesota.

Renowned bear researcher Lynn Rogers of the Wildlife Research Institute in Minnesota said the confirmation of a “spirit bear” in Michigan is an incredible discovery for wildlife science.

“So, there are a few genes in this area,” he said, excitedly. “It’s a double-recessive gene. And if there are fewer of those genes here, it’s going to be rare that you get a double-recessive combination.”

Such a genetic combination means both the sow and boar must carry the recessive gene for their offspring to have white or blonde fur when born.

Rogers said the white bears known as Kermode bears that live on the islands along the Pacific coastline of British Columbia are born more frequently there because they are isolated from the larger black bear population on the mainland. The recessive genes turn up more often in the limited gene pool.

Bear genetics spread across the vastness of the North American continent provides a much smaller chance white or blonde colorings will appear, he said.

That’s why Michigan wildlife authorities agreed this is an incredible discovery with exciting scientific research possibilities.

“So very cool. Very beautiful animal,” said Cody Norton, wildlife biologist and large carnivore expert for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Multiple people submitted the trail camera images to DNR officials after they were shared on social media. State wildlife experts have not been able to track the white bear since its discovery, though; they have been busy with the ongoing bear hunting season that started Sept. 7 and extends through October.

There are no special legal protections for bears with white fur in Michigan, like there are in British Columbia for the Kermode or “spirit bears” there. Those bears are known for standing out in the forest but being adept salmon fishers because their white fur offers camouflage against often cloud-filled skies.

Michigan officials are eager to learn more.

“Obviously, I’d love to actually see it. If it did get harvested, we’d love to take a genetic sample and get to see if this is the same exact genetic mutation that is what is found in British Columbia in the remote bear population or if it’s something different,” Norton said.

“But then also of course, if it makes it through the season, it’d be great to see future trail camera photos and anything else to try to learn about it because it is super cool, super unique.”

Two years ago, Norton said a couple of hunters in the western U.P. each showed up at DNR check stations with bears with cinnamon coloring – light, reddish-brown coats – a more common variation of the same sort of genetic mutation as white bears.

Other instances of bears with white coats outside of British Columbia include confirmed sightings of an adult in Minnesota in 1997, and then several cubs spotted years later in southern Manitoba. First there were two white cubs with a black mother in 2000, and then a single white cub with a black mother in 2004.

That makes this white bear in Michigan the first of its kind outside British Columbia in 18 years.

Norton said the trail camera photos show the Michigan “spirit bear” has coloration to its nose and skin, so it cannot be an albino or piebald animal. The white fur with a blonde or cinnamon patch on its neck and head is “very consistent” with Kermode bears, he said.

“If you look at everything else that shows up – to be rarer than a cougar or a lynx or anything else in Michigan – it’s pretty cool,” Norton said.

The U.P. resident who owns the trail camera said he literally did not believe it was a real white bear when he first saw images of the animal sent to his computer; he even deleted the first two photos because he thought it was just the bright camera flash lighting up a normal bear in the pitch darkness.

“Well, the next day, it was like five o’clock and I’m still getting pictures from this bait. And I look and I’m like, ‘Oh my God. Look at this thing.’”

The white “spirit bear” first appeared on the trail camera Sept. 3, 2022, and last appeared on Sept. 7, 2022, he said.

The trail camera owner is a hunting guide in the western U.P. and requested MLive grant him anonymity after some of his photos were posted on social media along with his name, but without his approval.

He subsequently received critical messages from other hunters in the area who worried about extra hunting pressure from outsiders because of his pictures. But he also got a fair number of hateful messages from anti-hunting advocates, he said, some even threatening.

Many apparently assumed he would hunt the bear or guide one of his clients to it. But he never had any intention to do that; the “spirit bear” was entirely too special, he said, and a little too small for prime hunting yet, anyway.

“I was not going to let anybody shoot that bear.”

Now the man said he has not seen the white bear on his trail camera in a week and fears it may have been killed by an active pack of wolves in the area.

That’s because one of his clients shot a 300-pound bear in the same area on Sept. 8, 2022, and a pack of wolves began to consume significant portions of the dead bear in less than a half-hour before he arrived at the tree stand to help field dress the animal.

“They literally ate a two-foot by two-foot chunk of insides. They ate most of the stomach out of it and half of the ribcage, some of the backstraps on top of it and some of the hindquarter – all in 27 minutes only 80 yards away from this hunter.”

He said he doesn’t think it’s a coincidence the white bear disappeared the same day the wolves partially ate that bigger bear shot by the archery hunter he guided.

Whether the “spirit bear” was preyed upon by an area wolf pack or continues to roam the deep woods of the U.P., its confirmed appearance marks a special moment, particularly for local Indigenous people from the Keewenaw Bay Indian Community.

Austin Ayres, wildlife technician with the KBIC Natural Resources Department, said that from a cultural perspective, the white bear is a representation of a new age being born for Anishinaabe people – who are the Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes, including Odawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi peoples across Michigan.

“It is a sign of great change. Some stories say the bear only comes when it is time for Anishinaabe to embrace their role and step away from their distractions. It is a reminder that within nature, anything and everything is possible, and the people should not go seeking anything outside of nature but understand all we need is within,” Ayres said.

He further explained that in his culture’s historical stories, the time when a white bear arrives is also welcomed by a “great abundance of the medicines on the landscape” and represented an age of healing.

“It is a sign for all people. We all have a choice, to desire more, to reach further, to expand our understandings, or to slow down, to understand the water more as spirit than as chemical, to know the plants as beings the same as the animals, to not dictate how others act only offer them the choice and the option to be better.”