In the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, black bears are pretty common in the area.
However, this right here may be a once in a lifetime find.
A hunter in the area had placed a trail camera in the woods to track down if there were any good bucks in the area, when all of a sudden an incredibly rare instance occurred…
An all-white black bear walked right up to the bait the hunter had laid out in front of the trail camera.
According to the New York Post, officials from the Department of Natural Resources are certain that the bear’s fur is completely white.
Cody Norton, large carnivore specialist with DNR, told the outlet:
“I thought it was just too cool. It’s just exciting seeing an animal pop up like this here instead of somewhere else.
We’ve had some cinnamon color phases show up, some blonde and chocolate on some trail cameras we use for surveys which is also really cool to see. But those are more common in bear populations. White is its own thing.”
Norton estimated that the white bear is around two-years-old.
It’s a myth that black bears with white fur are albino, nor are they polar bears. But rather, it’s a one-in-a-million chance that both male and female parents that bred contained a recessive gene for white fur.
White black bears are typically only found in western Canada, making this discovery even more rare.
The species, called Kermode bears, which are known in the region as “spirit bears” have a much greater chance of white fur, with the breakdown somewhere between 10 and 20%.
Pretty damn cool.
