About Black Bears

About Black Bears

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Black Bears are similar to Labrador Retrievers; they can be Black, White, and Brown or Cinnamon. Black bear subspecies go by different names, like Kermode bear, Cinnamon bear, or Glacier bear, but they are all black bears. Spirit Bear, also known as the Kermode bear, after Frank Kermode, former director of the Royal British Columbia Museum, this bear is a genetic abnormality, but not an albino. Where an albino would have a white nose and light-colored eyes, a Kermode bear has a brown nose and eyes.

A more fanciful explanation of the bear's origin comes from the Tsimshiam people. Long ago, the story goes, the world was covered in ice and snow. One day, the raven, the creator of the world, came down from heaven and turned the world green, as it is today. But as a reminder of the time when all was white, the raven went among the bears and turned every tenth one the color of snow. The raven decreed that the white bear, which the Tsimshiam call Moksgm'ol, would live forever in peace.

About This Photograph
I was driving outside of Skagway on a summer evening with my wife. We were about to go over an old wood plank bridge when my wife said, “stop there is something moving in the grass.” I stopped the car, backed up and a black bear, the mother, walked out from the tall grass beside the river. She stood up on her back legs to survey the land and judged it to be safe for her cubs. Following her was one white and one cinnamon color cubs. I grabbed my camera from the backseat and followed them across the bridge and captured this spectacular moment. The bears walked down to the river, came back up onto the bridge and vanished into the woods.



Hamilton Gelhar