Bears – Dennis Binda :: Wildlife Photography

Raptors Spain

Raptors Spain

Black Bear - Zwarte beer

The Kermode bear (Ursus americanus kermodei, pron. kerr-MO-dee), also known as a "spirit bear" (particularly in British Columbia), is a subspecies of the North American Black Bear living in the Central and North Coast regions of British Columbia, Canada. It is noted for about ten percent of their population having white or cream-coloured coats. This colour morph is due to recessive genes common in the population. They are not albinos and not any more related to polar bears or the "blonde" brown bears of Alaska's "ABC Islands" than other members of their species. Sometimes a black mother can have a white cub. Spirit bears hold a prominent place in the oral stories of the indigenous peoples of the area. It has also been featured in a National Geographic documentary. Scientists have found that black bears are not as effective at catching fish as white bears, as the white bears are less visible from the perspective of the fish. While at night the two colours of bears have similar success rates at catching fish, such as salmon, during the day the white bears are 30% more effective. The kermodei subspecies ranges from Princess Royal Island to Prince Rupert, British Columbia on the coast, and inland toward Hazelton, British Columbia. It is known to the Tsimshian peoples as Moksgm'ol. In the February 2006 Speech from the Throne by the Government of British Columbia, the Lieutenant Governor announced the government's intention to designate the Kermode or spirit bear as British Columbia's official animal. A male Kermode bear can reach 225 kg (500 lb) or more, females are much smaller with a maximum weight of 135 kg (300 lb). Straight up it stands 180 cm (6 ft) tall. It is estimated that there are fewer than 400 Kermode bears in the coast area that stretches from Southeast Alaska southwards to the northern tip of Vancouver Island; approximately 120 inhabit the large Princess Royal Island.

Kermode Bear (Spirit Bear)

Black Bear - Zwarte Beer

Black Bear - Zwarte Beer

The Kermode bear (Ursus americanus kermodei, pron. kerr-MO-dee), also known as a "spirit bear" (particularly in British Columbia), is a subspecies of the North American Black Bear living in the Central and North Coast regions of British Columbia, Canada. It is noted for about ten percent of their population having white or cream-coloured coats. This colour morph is due to recessive genes common in the population. They are not albinos and not any more related to polar bears or the "blonde" brown bears of Alaska's "ABC Islands" than other members of their species. Sometimes a black mother can have a white cub. Spirit bears hold a prominent place in the oral stories of the indigenous peoples of the area. It has also been featured in a National Geographic documentary. Scientists have found that black bears are not as effective at catching fish as white bears, as the white bears are less visible from the perspective of the fish. While at night the two colours of bears have similar success rates at catching fish, such as salmon, during the day the white bears are 30% more effective. The kermodei subspecies ranges from Princess Royal Island to Prince Rupert, British Columbia on the coast, and inland toward Hazelton, British Columbia. It is known to the Tsimshian peoples as Moksgm'ol. In the February 2006 Speech from the Throne by the Government of British Columbia, the Lieutenant Governor announced the government's intention to designate the Kermode or spirit bear as British Columbia's official animal. A male Kermode bear can reach 225 kg (500 lb) or more, females are much smaller with a maximum weight of 135 kg (300 lb). Straight up it stands 180 cm (6 ft) tall. It is estimated that there are fewer than 400 Kermode bears in the coast area that stretches from Southeast Alaska southwards to the northern tip of Vancouver Island; approximately 120 inhabit the large Princess Royal Island.

Kermode Bear (Spirit Bear)

The American black bear (Ursus americanus) is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most widely distributed bear species. Black bears are omnivores with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in search of food. Sometimes they become attracted to human communities because of the immediate availability of food. The American black bear is the world's most common bear species. It is listed by the IUCN as Least Concern, due to the species' widespread distribution and a large global population estimated to be twice that of all other bear species combined. Along with the brown bear, it is one of only two of the eight modern bear species not considered globally threatened with extinction by the IUCN. American black bears often mark trees using their teeth and claws as a form of communication with other bears, a behavior common to many species of bears. Although they live in North America, American black bears are not closely related to brown bears and polar bears; genetic studies reveal that they split from a common ancestor 5.05 million years ago. Both American and Asian black bears are considered sister taxa, and are more closely related to each other than to other species of bear. Reportedly, the Sun Bear is also a relatively recent split from this lineage. The American black bear lived during the same period as short-faced bears (Arctodus simus and A. pristinus) and the Florida spectacled bear (Tremarctos floridanus). These Tremarctine bears evolved from bears that had emigrated from Asia to North America 7–8 ma. The short-faced bears are thought to have been heavily carnivorous and the Florida spectacled bear more herbivorous, while the American black bears remained arboreal omnivores, like their Asian ancestors. The black bear's generalist behavior allowed it to exploit a wider variety of foods and has been given as a reason why of these 3 genera, it alone survived climate and vegetative changes through and last ice age while the other more specialized North American predators went extinct. However, both Arctodus and Tremarctos had survived several other ice ages. After these prehistoric Ursids went extinct during the last glacial period 10,000 years ago, black bears were probably the only bear present in much of North America until the arrival of brown bears to the rest of the continent. Historically, black bears occupied the majority of North America's forested regions. Today, they are primarily limited to sparsely settled, forested areas. Black bears currently inhabit much of their original Canadian range, though they do not occur in the southern farmlands of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. They have been extinct in Prince Edward Island since 1937. The total Canadian black bear population is between 396,000 and 476,000, based on surveys taken in the mid-1990s in seven Canadian provinces, though this estimate excludes black bear populations in New Brunswick, Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan. All provinces indicated stable populations of black bears over the last decade. The current range of black bears in the United States is constant throughout most of the northeast (down in the Appalachian Mountains almost continuously to Virginia and West Virginia), the northern midwest, the Rocky mountain region, the west coast and Alaska. However it becomes increasingly fragmented or absent in other regions. Despite this, black bears in those areas seems to have expanded their range during the last decade, such as with recent sightings in Ohio, though these probably do not represent stable breeding populations yet. Surveys taken from 35 states in the early 1990s indicate that black bears are either stable or increasing, except in Idaho and New Mexico. The overall population of black bears in the United States has been estimated to range between 339,000 and 465,000, though this excludes populations from Alaska, Idaho, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming, whose population sizes are unknown.

Black Bear - Zwarte Beer

The Kermode bear (Ursus americanus kermodei, pron. kerr-MO-dee), also known as a "spirit bear" (particularly in British Columbia), is a subspecies of the North American Black Bear living in the Central and North Coast regions of British Columbia, Canada. It is noted for about ten percent of their population having white or cream-coloured coats. This colour morph is due to recessive genes common in the population. They are not albinos and not any more related to polar bears or the "blonde" brown bears of Alaska's "ABC Islands" than other members of their species. Sometimes a black mother can have a white cub. Spirit bears hold a prominent place in the oral stories of the indigenous peoples of the area. It has also been featured in a National Geographic documentary. Scientists have found that black bears are not as effective at catching fish as white bears, as the white bears are less visible from the perspective of the fish. While at night the two colours of bears have similar success rates at catching fish, such as salmon, during the day the white bears are 30% more effective. The kermodei subspecies ranges from Princess Royal Island to Prince Rupert, British Columbia on the coast, and inland toward Hazelton, British Columbia. It is known to the Tsimshian peoples as Moksgm'ol. In the February 2006 Speech from the Throne by the Government of British Columbia, the Lieutenant Governor announced the government's intention to designate the Kermode or spirit bear as British Columbia's official animal. A male Kermode bear can reach 225 kg (500 lb) or more, females are much smaller with a maximum weight of 135 kg (300 lb). Straight up it stands 180 cm (6 ft) tall. It is estimated that there are fewer than 400 Kermode bears in the coast area that stretches from Southeast Alaska southwards to the northern tip of Vancouver Island; approximately 120 inhabit the large Princess Royal Island.

Kermode Bear (Spirit Bear)

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