Rare White Grizzly Bear, Banff, Alberta Canada

Debra

Dagobah Resident
When I saw this story in the news last month, there were a lot of other things happening, so it kinda got filed.
This morning it showed up on the "scrolly thingy" and so before other stuff happens, here it is.

I haven't found any reports yet on the type of fur this bear may have, making it a "white" bear.
If you notice the language, the Biologists are "suggesting", and "believed to be..." but no facts yet.
If a sample is analyzed, I wonder if the fur is truly white, lacking pigment, or hollow, like the "white" Polar Bear?
Rare white grizzly bear spotted in Canada
The white cub, whose coat colour is caused by a recessive gene, was sighted in Banff National Park
May 24, 2020 12:56 PM (IST)

1590330017226.png
1590330844708.png1590330906065.png
A white grizzly bear is seen on the side of the Trans-Canada Highway in a video taken by Harvie Heights resident Cara Clarkson on April 26.
A rare white grizzly bear has been spotted in Canada's Rocky Mountains.

A family out for a drive on a remote highway in Banff National Park came across the young white bear searching for food in the snow with a brown bear along the side of the road.

Cara Nelson, who shot video of the rare sighting last month, told CBC: "We're talking polar bear white. For us, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Which is probably the only reason we decided to slow down and take a little bit of video of it, because normally we could come across bears on a regular basis."

The bear's white coat colour is down to genetics. Kris Hundertmark, assistant professor of wildlife ecology at University of Alaska Fairbanks, suggested that the white coloration in bears can be attributed to an unusual recessive gene.

A recessive gene would need to be present in both parents for the cub to have a white coat.

The white cub belongs to the grizzly bear subspecies
and is different from the Kermode bear, or "spirit bear", which also have white fur caused by a rare recessive gene, and are a subspecies of the North American black bear.


In a statement, Parks Canada said: "The sub-adult grizzly and its sibling are known to Parks Canada and have been spending their time between Banff and Yoho national parks in Canada. These grizzlies are believed to be about 3.5 years old and this will be their second year away from their mother.

"The unique white colour is believed to be caused by a natural colour phase variation. Grizzly bears are typically brown, black or blonde, however there have been records of grizzly bears with a white colour phase variation. This is unusual for grizzly bears but has been seen before.

"Human and wildlife safety is of the utmost importance to Parks Canada. Observing wildlife in their natural habitat is a privilege that comes with a responsibility to treat wildlife with the respect they deserve and need. Keeping wildlife wild is a shared responsibility – we all have a role to play." The Independent

Is this a precursor, an indication that "Winter is COMING!"? aka, Ice age....

Is an alarm going off, deep in the unknown coding of Grizzly Bear "junk" DNA, the Created Intelligence in its DNA being triggered?

Earth and Nature sending FRV's that are perhaps triggering a genetic camouflage program?

It'll be interesting to watch for more "Rare" white critters showing up, I'm thinkin'!

It reminded me of the discussion about Polar Bears in this thread:
 
This reminds me of something that happened to me 3 weeks ago. You would think that when in the city you wont be able to see wildlife but in my case that is not so :-D. Im a Taurus and I love playing in the dirt and being in nature and I have good eyes for spotting movement. And I live near some hills and patches of forrest and my flat is at ground-level so I see and hear everything when its quiet. I think I "attract" all sorts of "weird" sightings when Im "out and about" and I noticed that I see all sorts of stuff that others dont a long time ago.

It was around 2:30AM and I was awakened by what I thought were cats, in front of my flat on the side of the street, that were really going at each others throats. It sounded unusually guttural and I thought maybe one of them was very injured so I wanted to help. This sound was not like anything I heard before but I just woke up and was not thinking much, just reacting. I feed 3 outdoor cats and I thought it might be one of them that had a fight or even an accident. Btw Im used to cats fighting around my flat and my street which has a lot of gardens at the back of houses. And I usually dont react to short territorial skirmishes that happen all the time since that is perfectly normal outdoor cat behaviour. So I got up, put on my sandals and ran out to try and separate them in my shorts :lol: . It was raining too. And when I got outside and arrived at the spot I supposed the cats will be I saw a HUGE BADGER. You can imagine my surprise :wow: ... Whats more it was not a usual badger with black fur and white stripes on the head. Instead it was gray-ish. First I was confused for 15seconds but I snapped out of it and started watching him (that was the second time that Ive seen a badger in nature, first time was years ago while I was travelling on a mountain road). He saw me and started to retreat up the street and off he went. Since it was raining and I was in my shorts and sandals I didnt follow him hahhaah...

Later I searched the net and found that this "discoloration" (it was not a white albino badger and I know albino when I see it, my indoor Cat overlord is a white turkish Van breed) is called Erythristic mutation. So maybe this grizzly bear is like that too?

Heres a pic of an Erythristic badger:
erythristic badger.jpg

And for last few months I have been studying the concept of spirit animal helpers... it is really some amazing stuff. I do wish I had knowledge of this concept when I was younger but I obviously wasnt ready for it. And Im very thankfull I was given a second chance at this.
 
There has been a new Video taken of the White Grizzly cub, and he has a name now.
He has been named " Nakoda"
Nakoda is the indigenous name for the First nations people of Western Alberta and B.C. They are now pretty much known as the Stoney Tribes.
I read an interesting comment on the Twitter feed where the video is posted.
It is from amy.akpalialuk.3
And she wrote:
"Polar bear! Its not grizzly. Me being inuk knows what polar bears look like."
1591029637119.png

 
This new Baby Grizzly Bear just has the white head!
Made me laugh, 'round here, we call kittens and puppy's that are born with mismatched colors "Retrofits", as in, made from left over spare parts.
‘Never seen anything like it’: Bear cub spotted in Alberta with unique white head
Allison Bench June 16, 2020

1592496685096.png
© Courtesy / Julia Turner Butterwick A grizzly bear cub with a white head and regular colouring on its body was spotted in the mountains by a Calgary family this weekend.
[...]
Several bear experts confirmed to Global News the cub was a grizzly, but they had never seen or even heard of one with similar colourings.

"I’ve never seen anything like it. Nor have I seen a picture of one," Jeff Gailus, a conservation writer and grizzly bear expert, said.

Wildlife expert and zoologist Paul Pauquet agreed it was an "exceptionally unique" spotting.

"[This is] possibly never previously observed and recorded.
"I have seen and photographed grizzly bears with light blond (but not white) heads and darker coloured bodies," Pauquet said.
[...]
Pauquet said that the little cub with the white head was likely caused by an atypical recessive gene, but that gene would have to be present in both parents to show up in a cub.

"In theory, the gene could be present but not exhibited in the parent bears and sibling or other relatives," he said, adding that he wonders if the white colouring that has shown up in at least two Banff-area grizzlys now means the bears in that area are becoming more isolated from other populations.

"The likelihood of the gene being expressed would be enhanced in isolated or contained population of bears, such as an island population, because opportunities are increased of a bear mating with a related bear that also carries the gene," he said.

Gailus said that he believes the half-and-half cub is even more extraordinary than the more well-known three-year-old all-white bear.

"Unless it (the cub) got into a can of white paint, it’s obviously a very rare colour phase, perhaps even rarer than the all-white grizzly present in Banff.

"To have two such sightings in the same spring is nothing short of a miracle,"
Gailus said.


 
This new Baby Grizzly Bear just has the white head!
Made me laugh, 'round here, we call kittens and puppy's that are born with mismatched colors "Retrofits", as in, made from left over spare parts.
‘Never seen anything like it’: Bear cub spotted in Alberta with unique white head
Allison Bench June 16, 2020

View attachment 37044
© Courtesy / Julia Turner Butterwick A grizzly bear cub with a white head and regular colouring on its body was spotted in the mountains by a Calgary family this weekend.
[...]
Several bear experts confirmed to Global News the cub was a grizzly, but they had never seen or even heard of one with similar colourings.

"I’ve never seen anything like it. Nor have I seen a picture of one," Jeff Gailus, a conservation writer and grizzly bear expert, said.

Wildlife expert and zoologist Paul Pauquet agreed it was an "exceptionally unique" spotting.

"[This is] possibly never previously observed and recorded.
"I have seen and photographed grizzly bears with light blond (but not white) heads and darker coloured bodies," Pauquet said.
[...]
Pauquet said that the little cub with the white head was likely caused by an atypical recessive gene, but that gene would have to be present in both parents to show up in a cub.

"In theory, the gene could be present but not exhibited in the parent bears and sibling or other relatives," he said, adding that he wonders if the white colouring that has shown up in at least two Banff-area grizzlys now means the bears in that area are becoming more isolated from other populations.

"The likelihood of the gene being expressed would be enhanced in isolated or contained population of bears, such as an island population, because opportunities are increased of a bear mating with a related bear that also carries the gene," he said.

Gailus said that he believes the half-and-half cub is even more extraordinary than the more well-known three-year-old all-white bear.

"Unless it (the cub) got into a can of white paint, it’s obviously a very rare colour phase, perhaps even rarer than the all-white grizzly present in Banff.

"To have two such sightings in the same spring is nothing short of a miracle,"
Gailus said.


Sad news about this little Grizzly Family.
The Biologists suspect the cubs may have been killed by a Territorial Male Grizzly.
Then, just 2 weeks later, the Mama Bear was killed by the train.
I think she did it on purpose.
Suicide by train.

1600538188738.png
Death of grizzly mother and cubs a 'big loss' to Banff park, experts say

Mother of rare, white-headed cub killed Sept. 3 by train, cubs presumed dead

The Canadian Press · Posted: Sep 16, 2020 2:29 PM MT

Wildlife experts say the death of a mother grizzly bear and her two cubs — including a rare blond-headed grizzly — in Banff National Park is a major loss to the population.

Parks Canada has said that an adult bear was struck and killed Sept. 3 by a Canadian Pacific Railway train on a rail line through the Alberta park.

"She was about 10 years old and had been known to Parks Canada," Dwight Bourdin, resource conservation manager with the agency's Lake Louise, Yoho and Kootenay field unit, said in an interview this week.

The bear, known as No. 143, spent most of her time in the backcountry of Banff and the adjacent Yoho and Kootenay national parks in British Columbia, Bourdin said.

She was spotted earlier this summer with two cubs, including the one with a blond head and brown body. But Bourdin said neither cub has been spotted since before the mother bear was killed.

"One has not been seen since early June and one was not seen since Aug. 15," said Bourdin. "Both are believed to have perished prior to this incident.

"We've searched the area thoroughly. We continue to monitor the site.
[...]
Bourdin said the two cubs, which are believed to be No. 143's second set as a mother, were likely killed by a large male grizzly or another predator in the park. It's not known whether her cubs from 2018 survived, he said.
 
Back
Top Bottom