Facts About Spirit Bears

• The Kermode or Spirit Bear is a black bear that has white fur due to a rare genetic trait.


• The bear is not albino, as it typically has a brown nose and eyes.


• The greatest concentration of Spirit Bears are found on the Central Coast and North Coast of British Columbia, Canada, but have been documented in northeast British Columbia and as far east in North America as Minnesota.


• The Spirit Bear, like most black bears, weighs about half a pound when born and generally between 150-300 pounds when fully grown.


• The bear’s body length, measured from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail, averages between four and six feet. Its height, measured from the bottom of the paw flat on the ground to the highest part of the shoulders, is between two-and-a-half and three feet.


• Spirit bears, like most black bears, are omnivores. They eat berries, nuts, fruits, roots, grasses and other plants, insects, deer and moose fawns, carrion and, during the salmon season from late summer through fall, spawning salmon.