Spirit bear with salmon carcasses, Gribbell Island, British Columbia

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Kermode bears (a rare white genetic variant of black bears, Ursus americanus kermodei) fishing for salmon in a creek on Gribbell Island, on north coastal British Columbia. The tribal people of the Pacific Northwest call the rare blonde Kermode bears spirit bears or ghost bears. They can only be seen in a very small area of the BC coast and occur nowhere else in the world. The bears gorge during the fall when the salmon swim up the streams to spawn. After spawning in the shallow gravel beds of the coastal creeks, the salmon die. Not only do the large salmon runs sustain the spirit bears, black and grizzly bears in the area, but their carcasses support the entire temperate rainforest ecosystem with its diverse plants and animals. The bears have to eat enough of the fat, nutrient-rich salmon to sustain them for up to 7 months of hibernation when they do not eat. The fall salmon runs, especially in good years, allow the bears to put on enough fat to survive the long hibernation.

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Size: 5000px × 3333px
Location: Gribbell Island, British Columbia
Photo credit: © Terry Allen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

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